Hattieville Youth Complains of Police Harassment

Akeem Smith

Twenty-five-year-old Akeem Smith broke his silence today; for years, he claims that he has been the target of police, even as he has tried to walk the straight and narrow. Now by no means is Smith saying that he has not had run-ins with the law, but he has never been charged for any major crime. The straw that broke the camel’s back took place this morning. Smith works with a construction company in a city, but as he waited on the roadside in Hattieville to be picked up by the work truck, a police vehicle came towards his direction. Fearing that he would be picked up by cops once again, he hurried home and told his mother. In an interview with Smith, he says that a particular officer has been harassing him, detaining him for forty-eight hours without valid reason and threatening him.  

Akeem Smith, Claims Police Harassment

“I noh really di paint myself like I dah no good guy or nothing, but I di try walk the right path. My ma try with me and everything, my ma deal with me stiff—she dah noh encouraging parent. She noh got me out there di do no abstract. She deal with me stiff. I noh know what with this specific officer, [bleep]; I noh know weh he have with me. He deh pan my trail from Belmopan. We deh dah Belmopan, we live ina certain apartment and he stay pan we, say I do this, I do that, I sell drugs, I hurt people, I do all kinda thing. Now if you could see sir; small youngster to you, no even got no height over you, nothing, lee young bwai fi he got my name all over the world.  Seventy-two hours—do forty-eight dah Cayo, come dah Belmopan do a couple more hours and then come dah Hattieville fi do twenty-four more hours. They police di bogus me and all I di do dah just try survive. Be wah honest young man ina society cause me dah wah law abiding citizen. I know my laws, I know right from wrong.  I wah never di do the wrong thing and expect fi nobody laugh with me and sweep it under the rug like I noh di do nothing. I noh di do nothing. Every day I work. My boss dah Robert Mejia, every day we do construction. Every day I got people fi vouch for me. If I noh deh dah work, I deh ‘round my ma or I deh with a female, my woman and my kids dehn. I stay ina my place. I noh deh bout di wonder, I noh deh pan no corner every day. And the only time I deh pan corner, dah if I di work pan this street corner yah.  I twenty-five years old, I got common sense, I noh simple. I know weh I want be ina life. Yes I choose a wrong path fi that. I noh be somebody great like dehn ina society, but I di try change from that. You can’t paint my past and keep me dehn cause my past dah no kinda past like I do nothing graphic. This dah my first time pan any media or any news like that fi anything. I noh kill nobody yet, I noh do nothing outta di way. All I do dah petty fights, petty thing and thing pan di streets and ina school. That you paint me a bad man reputation fah?”