Was Garifuna Collective Drummer abused by Jaguar Operatives?
joshua arana
On Monday night’s newscast we heard the story of the Garifuna Collective’s lead drummer, Joshua Arana, who claimed that a police officer abused him while he was walking home in Belize City early Sunday morning. Well today Assistant Commissioner of Police, Elodio Aragon Jr., answered questions on whether the alleged abuse which is now under investigation, happened during a patrol as part of Operation Jaguar.
A.C.P. Elodio Aragon Jr., Head, Operation Jaguar
elodio aragon jr.
“I saw it on the news and I looked into the matter noh. I think he has made a report to the ombudsman office and also I looked at it in regards to his report at the I.A.D. As of yesterday, I was unable to confirm through the I.A.D. office that any official report has been made noh. But definitely I have tasked the internal affairs division to look into the matter seriously because the last thing we want to do, with this operation, is to lose the confidence of the public. And as such we will not tolerate any of our jaguar personnel to be out there losign that confidence right. There is a lot to be done and definitely we cannot achieve what we want to achieve by having such incidents.”
Arana said one of six officers who got out of a police patrol that morning kicked his legs, punched him then slapped him as he gave him orders.
The people already don’t have a lot of respect for the police; now “Operation Jaguar” is following their lead too. If the people start viewing “Operation Jaguar” like they do the police then all hell with break loose.
That specific officer crossed the line, and the rest of his troop did nothing to help the situation. I say take them off the force immediately. We need positive role models, not idiots above the law.
but what was he doing on the streets at one in the morning and on George st, come on. He should have know better.
Belize is a free country in the sense that u should have the freedom to go wherever u want. now some places might not be the safest place to be but that does not give anyone the rite to try and hurt u, especially these uneducated policemen. we have to start single out these policemen who are dirty cops and shoot them 1 by 1, then they will start respecting the public. 1 good statement has to come from the public in a very violent way and these police will tighten up.
It is uneducated idiots like Street Justice that incite unwarranted violence. He should take a look in the mirror before encouraging our youths to go and shoot at Police Officers.
Belizean: this unwarranted incitment of violence u say Street Justice speaks of..sounds very similar to the violent rant of the PM during a house sitting when he said he wanted to hand Said Musa with a noose. He heard the PM speak like that so why can’t he….PM Barrow is educated is he not
Let us not lose focus of the issue at hand. A fellow citizen was wronged & I am in no way condoning the actions of that officer. He should be dealt with accordingly. However, I urge Street Justice to be more responsible with his comments. You would be surprised who is reading your comments. .
this josh arana is well known country wide i would suggest , so make it this way, did any of this babylons couldn’t recognize him? they should at list have some knowledge who they can figure as a suspiciouse person with an abiding citizen but really it shows they lack training with this type is issues on how to arrest, search and interact with the people.
Belizean Pride just hit the nail..”they lack training”. Our Police for is never going to get better if we do not raise the bar. The Education Department now demands that all teachers have education up to a certain level. They need to take tests to ensure they are “qualified” as teachers. Would we want just anyone to teach our children? The same with the police force. Who do we recruit? All Police officers should be required to have at least a high school diploma maybe even higher education if you want to hold down a command post. If there are existing Police on the force who don’t meet this rule give them time to study and become educated just like the teacher did. Educated Police men and women will make better decisions. So why has this not happened yet?????