Belizeans for justice make heavy demands
yolanda schakron
Belizeans for Justice had planned to present recommendations to reduce crime at their press conference on Wednesday. But all that is now on hold in the face of the risk to their personal security. A few weeks ago, Doug Singh was installed as the new minister of police, but the NGO is now demanding the immediate removal of the top brass at the Police Department in the wake of a heinous double homicide involving Marques Mahler and Calvin Graham. This incident was only a stone’s throw away from a police substation and, according to Yolanda Shakron, the demand being made by Belizeans for Justice remains in place.
Yolanda Shakron, Founder, Belizeans for Justice
“Tomorrow we were going to have a press conference in which we had spoken to the members of Belizeans for Justice and they felt that the crime situation had gotten worse and they felt that we should start a petition to ask for the removal of Mr. Jeffries, the Commissioner of Police. But because of we receiving certain threats and today one of the members of the executive have received another threat we decided to put it off because we cannot provide security for all the people that will be there, you know, and even for us. We can’t guarantee that nothing will happen and the time we’re living in right now in Belize we have to take threats very seriously because I don’t know, you. I don’t know how we can protect ourselves because we’re just mothers who want the corruption to stop; who want the justice system to change and who want answers for the murders of our children. So we decided to put it off and speak to the membership again to see how we’ll proceed.”
Isani Cayetano
You spoke earlier about rallying for the removal of the Commissioner of Police. Can you speak to us as to why now your organization is asking for this particular action to be taken?
Yolanda Shakron
“Because, let me, let me put it in this perspective. if you di run wah organization and you’re not doing a good job, if I have somebody di run my business, a manager, and your employees di do what they want and you do nothing about it what I will do is I will make that person, you know, I will fire that person. Mr. Jeffries is not doing a good job. Mr. Jeffries has not responded to the cries of the mothers, the Belizean mothers, about police, rogue cops that are involved in a lot of things that are wrong, even in murders and we have gone to the media, we have gone public with this. And these same cops names keep being calling over and over again and why does he turn a blind eye to this situation? Why? Apparently he has no control or he chooses not to, you know, not to care. I mean but our children are dying.”
When will Belize get it in through their heads. ………. and his criminal son and people are behind many of these crimes! Why do you think things have gotten this far? And of course you will be threatened if you are demanding his removal, he IS A ROUGE INDIVIDUAL!!! He NEEDS TO GO!!!
It would appear that the police department does not have enough undercover personels, and if they do, its obvious they are not doing a good job. They don’t need the kind of undercover that can be spotted a mile away to be a cop. Also given the seriousness of the young criminals it may be necessary for all Belizeans to give finger prints and have it stored in the custody of Magistrates, not the police. Of course it might take legislation to bring this about which may never happen, given the fact that some of the big boys are not to righteous and will fight against it to the bitter end.
lets put it this way, if the police department/Army fire every corrupt cop on the force there will be no police left in Belize for protection. Those same corrupt cops will have to go back on your streets to live and look for jobs in an already jobless, poor society. The police department was created not only to serve and protect the people but also as jobs for the people, imagine your crime rate double in no time if every bad cop get fired from their positions. Therefore any leader of the police force has to make the decision on what is defined as petty crimes or unforgivable crimes before he actually fire a police officer. This is a no-win-situation.
What about the court system? the justice system is by far one of the biggest problem right now in belize.
It is awesome for me to be so far away from Belize and to see these brave Belizean woman standing up for justice. This organization should be protected by the police, the GOB at all cost.
The criminals has found the weak spot and lives are in danger, this protest must go on.
best wishesYolanda.
i agree 100 % there is a serious need for change in belize it is so obvious the whole system need to be revamped ///police cant ketch di killers and the prosecutors cant put dem behind bars / pure nonsense///stand strong my sister you and your organization are doing the right thing//dont give up
Hon Mr Singh, please get rid of all the police officer involved in crime, drugs, and gangs, please do somthing, according to what I understand that when the police pick two suspects in the murder of the little boy, friday, when they were passing in front of the family of the child the men roll down the glass of the police pick up and made threathening signs to a family member of the child, Mr Singh how dare the police allow this, please investigate on these police officers, that is why these criminal behave they do cause it seems they have all the support of the police officers,
We the people won’t get vex with you for getting rid of such police officers, even if the commissioner of police.
We the people are pleading to you to do something!!! Start the hanging!!!!
Maddyvandijk, you have made a very hasty generalization of the police department. I dont appreciate it. We have hard working, law abiding police officers who put their life at risk while carrying out their job.
Obviously, you have been out of Belize for too long not tho notice. We have excellent police officers and they are the ones that remain in the lower ranks because they dont kiss to move up. We need a brand new Compol who will find the good police officers and promote them so they can feel good for doing the right thing.
I think you need to apologize to those good police officers.
I do agree Maddyvandijk is right and they do not have to apologise. I do belive there are good offices , but they are cowards. there have to be one person who they can talk to about the issue in the force without being penalize, and there must be someone can listen and do their Job to protect the citizen of our country. My Son is in the US airforce and he protect his country, he fight for his country. what do our belizean police do? they get a treat from Mr. Brown and they let him go free. where is the justice, who runs the country. I read the news every day and see how many innocense lives have been taken by these criminals. I am so angry ashammed on my country right now.
maddyvandijk says:-
lets put it this way, if the police department/Army fire every corrupt cop on the force there will be no police left in Belize for protection.
maddyvandijk …..=….. LOCA IDIOTA ———– YOU ALWAYS DESPARAGE BELIZE, ALWAYS PUTTING US DOWN. STOP IT NOW……………YOU IDIOT!!!! BECAUSE YOU LIVE WITH THE ORIGINAL “COLONIAL” RAPIST in europe, YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE BETTER THAN US??????????
proud belizean, You are entitle to your own opinion about the police department in Belize, and no one here is asking you to apologize for your own belief, althought some would disagree with your opinion about the police.
I will not apologize to anyone for what I believe, especially to the police.
have a fine day.
Stay where you are Angry Belizean, you are not helping the situation. What are you and your son doing for Belize?
Don’t fire the Police fire the commander in chief the wrong hornorable Mr Barrow.
Proud Belizean says:
Maddyvandijk, you have made a very hasty generalization of the police department. I dont appreciate it. We have hard working, law abiding police officers who put their life at risk while carrying out their job.
Obviously, you have been out of Belize for too long not tho notice.
I second…….PROUD BELIZEAN!!!!
Earl Grey, it is abvious at this point that you are just another ignorant n……. commenting right out the of the slumbs of Belize city, possibly never breast fed.
it is abvious that your frustration in your life has taken a negative impact on your personality and now you must take it out on other people you feel so inferior to, sad really.
Your are disrespecful to women on this site, it is lack of disrespect, laziness, frustration and dishonesty among the belizean people that is causing this problem in Belize. I sense that you are an older man consumed with self pity, and frustration, and I feel a sense of pity for you.
I am not better than them, I am better than you, by far.
The good police need to band together and speak out to save their reputation. The media should also help to get something together. Reveal the good side, the struggle to work so hard for so little pay.
The police need take some more open measures to build some accountability among the public. Build respect.
I hate to see them being bashed so much knowing they are a few good men & women out there.
maddyvandijk……………… YOU ARE RACIST TOO!!!!! I should have known. How sad ;-(
garnaches: I totally agree with you because at the end of the day these guys are only taking orders from their superiors.With that said i do believe that some of these Police need to work on their beer belly because most of the sprang heads out there have nothing more than eighty pounds.Which means that they would outrun these beer belly cops.
maddyvandijk says:
……..it is lack of disrespect, laziness, frustration and dishonesty among the belizean people that is causing this problem in Belize. NEED I SAY MORE?????????????? YOU always TALK DOWN TO BELIZE AND BELIZEANS. STOP NOW.
My advise to these womem would be to install some kind of surveilance Camera around there home so that in the event one of these cowards try to harm them hopefully they will get caught.
The lady has made a point quite clearly; in a nutshell, if you own a business being run by a manager who simply has no control of his staff then you get rid of him before the problem gets any worse. The government should be perceived just like a company and in this case the CEO is the Prime Minister who then needs to carefully evaluate the performance of his subordinates down to the line managers. It’s time for our leaders to start running all issues of the country with an “ownership” approach and stop doing things the “no man’s land” way…
If this network can create documentaries on a couple getting married and produce a karaoke show etc., they very well could do a good investigative documentary on policing in Belize.
We’re reaching a critical point where some courageous and investigative reporting needs to be done on the topic of crime. These everyday reports of shooting incidents, etc. are not enough on the media’s part.
You know?! I was with the idea that it is better that there is Ministry specifically responsible for the Police Department, but I am beginning to wonder if it will work now. Mr. Singh’s interview on Channel 7 last week about the police was very interesting and informative and he demonstrated his fustration towards the findings of the police so far: corruption, rogue cops, unhealthy cops, unfit policemen. Now its time for him to walk to walk. He has already talked the talk NOW ITS TIME FOR SOME ACTION!!! PEOPLE ARE BEGINNING TO TAKE MATTERS ON THEIR OWN HANDS NOW!!!
The situation is far past B***S***!!! Here is a suggestion, just as how the media on television do a part-time series about the different issues affecting our society. For example, taking a whole day to contraband one (1) beer from Botes or the effects of development close to the reef they can maybe do a part-time series about the police department or even better just as how the guy came and did a story about the gangs in Belize city maybe one of them can run a similar one too. What do you guys think about that?
It’s obvious that there is no political willing to change this status quo.
So what can we do? In a democracy the only tool a citizen has to do something is the vote, but I don’t see one person with the right attribute not even to talk about crime on the horizon…. we should get mercenary police, not related with anybody . We can’t have drugs dealers with brothers in the police(high rank)……there is no way out….glad to be wrong
jefferies and his rogue cops needs to b taken out for good. we should bury a dirty cop twice a week and i bet the rest will tighten up. thats the reality to come soon.
May be if we had a woman as the prime minister some of these issue would not be so out of control. I think that the men that are running our country is not prepared well enough.
I second that Newark. We need a female Prime Minister. Long overdue.
maddyvandijk says:
Earl Grey, it is abvious at this point that you are just another ignorant n……. commenting right out the of the slumbs of Belize city,……….. maddy – SHOWING HER TRUE COLOURS!!!
NEWARK……….. Zenida Moya …… was our GREAT FEMALE HOPE. Now …. we have to see who rises to the top. (The cream always rises to the top.) There are lots and lots of competent women in Belize. WE JUST NEED TO BACK THEM UP — SUPPORT THEM.
SOMEWHERE WHERE THE WORLD IS FALLING APART:
Earl Grey, all the regulars on this site have seen how you constantly target me.
then in one of your personal comments about me, you stated that i think i am better than you.
thank you for the clarity of this very un-important issue that keeps dragging on, on, on but going nowhere really.
And now back to some real world issues:
Yolanda, the show must go on.
maddyvandijk says:
Earl Grey, it is abvious at this point that you are just another ignorant n……. commenting right out the of the slumbs of Belize city,……….. maddy – SHOWING HER TRUE COLOURS!!!
maddyvandijk…….. Don’t take it personally. I call out anyone…ANYONE WHO DESPARAGES BELIZE. YOU SAID IT IS WORSE THAT HAITI……. and too many other mindless drivels to mention. DON’T TALK DOWN TO BELIZE AND BELIZEANS and we’ll be cool.
I’m not Belizean, but I’d like to voice the opinion that “Belizeans for Justice” is
doing exactly the right thing. The politicians are not God, which means they do
(or don’t do, as the case may be) that which they think the majority of the people
support. Let them know loud and clear that they fall short of your expectations
and their tune will change very quickly. I know it is much easier to say this than
to do it, but do it you must. For the good of your beautiful country and your children.
Again, “Belizeans for Justice”, my hat is off to you.
Tom from Minnesota
Tom from Minnesota……… Thank you for your support of our little jewel of a country called Belize.
Realistic
I also want to congratulate “Belizeans For Justice” at least some of us are trying to help the situation . Is there any cause we can go and sign a petition to show our solidarity with you all?