CEMO/CitCo holding violence prevention summit

zenaida moya flowers

There’s more talk against crime, this time it’s coming from the Belize City Council that is holding a Violence Prevention Summit to bring all sectors of the community together to take an active stance against the increasing violent crimes. CitCo has activated the City Emergency Management Organization (CEMO) to spearhead the initiative which will feature a panel of speakers ranging from the Minister of National Security, to church leaders and even ex-convicts. According to Belize City Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers, their objective is formulate sub-committees who will be responsible to tackle different areas of violence prevention to try and curb the crime situation particularly in the murder capital. She says that while it may be cliché, the ultimate message of the summit is to give peace a chance.

Zenaida Moya Flowers, Belize City Mayor

“This violence prevention summit is something, an actual event that will be held to bring together all the stakeholders of the community. Violence affects everybody and it has to be treated, it must addressed, it must be dealt with just as we would any other public health issue. It is something that is looked at preventable and because violence is manmade and because it’s manmade we have to treat as such. We can do something about it. We are the crime capital of this country, of this region so we have to do something in a holistic manner so all these different entities will form a part of this—all the different sporting leaders as well, they will play their role, the business community as well so when they come into this summit they will be a part of it. Thereafter we will break into sub-committees whereby it will be agreed upon which committee you will be a apart of to get these particular activities agreed upon.”

Ret’d Sgt. Gilbert Tablada, Speaker, Violence Prevention Summit

Sgt. gilbert tablada

“What we want to do, go back to basics recruit people from abroad that they would respect because these ones are ignoring the law and do what they want to do because ht prime minister  – “zero violence”, the commissioner get there – “zero violence” and they still doing it. You can’t count the amount of police who involve themselves in wrongdoing.”

jermaine mcdougal

Jermaine McDougal, Speaker, Violence Prevention Summit

“I was in prison before. Since I came out I am against the violence in our community and I think it was a great pleasure for me to be assigned to be a part of this crime prevention summit for one fact that I was a par to the violence in the past. I used to be one who use to contribute to what is wrong so I think it’s a pleasure for me now to do something good for my city as a role model citizen.”

Moya Flowers says that whatever strategies are derived from the summit will be implemented with deadlines and the sub-committees will report on their progress at a later date. The event starts at eight-thirty on Wednesday morning at the Princess Hotel.