Mom says son was brutalized by armed forces
wilfred McDougal
There is one more report of police brutality. The mother of a Southside youth alleges that her son was targeted simply because they live in a crime prone area. According to Helena Alvarez, she found out from a neighbor that her son, eighteen year old Wilfred McDougal, was being beaten not far from home. Alvarez says she initially thought it was a squabble with other neighborhood teens and was surprised to find out it was a group of both Belize Defense Force Soldiers and police officers. She told News Five that she hasn’t been allowed to see her son since the incident.
Helena Alvarez, Mother of Alleged Brutality Victim
“Dis morning I mi deh een side, my son mi deh outside and he gone right round di lane. Not even wah ten minutes when my neighbor come and halla and tell me dehn di beat my son. When I get out deh—I just run outside—two truck load, B.D.F. and police di beat my son and beat ah eena ih belly with di barrel ah wah gun. Mi son got wah bruise pan ih face weh ih neva have dis morning. Dat noh right at all, at all. Dehn expect fi get help from di public and dehn di brutalize people pickney, ih noh fair. I di up and down dah station from dis morning when I mi business fi deh dah work. I deh dah station di ask all kinda question; dehn noh charge ah, dehn got ah hold. I get one good response from one officer dis afternoon weh tell me mek ah go back and he wah talk to mi again when ih done talk to mi son.”
Delahnie Bain
“Have you been allowed to see him as yet?”
Helena Vasquez
helena vasquez
“No ma’am, dehn noh want I si ah. Dehn seh if I need fi si ah, di officer tell me I need fi get wah lawyer fi si my son. Den one ah di B.D.F. he holla he noh want beat up none ah dehn, he just want put led inna one. Well I si fi face, I rememba fi he face good weh seh dat. But den ih noh fair fi dehn di beat up people pickney den dehn wah got people pickney lock up.”
Delahnie Bain
“Do you have any idea why they targeted him?”
Helena Vasquez
“No, when I get deh dehn tell me dehn only di keep ah fi investigation, I noh know if dah di—according to dehn dah di neighborhood ah weh we live. Why dehn wah conduct people fi di neighborhood weh dehn live eena? I work hard fi my pickney dehn. Ih just turn eighteen dat’s why I tell ah I noh want ah out deh fi di same reason ah police di target dehn. I noh want ah out deh so he noh go nowhere; he stay inside.”
Alvarez says the officers have a habit of picking on random youths in the area because of its reputation.
If he was beaten, I’d like to hear the BDF/police reason why.
Most police realize that they are there to protect the law-abiding people, and if they abuse them physically or verbally, they will have no friends to help them do their jobs.
That said, every police agency needs oversight by an honest group that has the means to fire and imprison officers who break the laws themselves.
I understand that the Belize police force does not hold the respect of the citizens in Belize and is in no way above reproach however ,they do have a job to do and when citizens does not corporate with the police it only makes that job so much more difficult and frustrating, some of the problems in Belize is obviously that parents are always ready to defend their bad ass children and the citizens at large needs to start reporting suspicious activities in their neighborhoods, if there is not one set up as yet there should be a tool free Tex number to text in criminal activities why texting, well because sometimes it’s just a better option than a phone call and Belizeans love texting (or maybe they just cannot afford phone calls) for instance if someone was in a closet hiding from a criminal and the criminal was just nearby they would hear a telephone conversation, so Belizeans get those cell phones out and start reporting suspicious activities in your neighborhoods I know almost all of you have cell phones some more than one, that is just how out of whack some of our priorities are, well let’s do the right thing and make reporting criminal activities a priority and don’t be a beneficiary of such activities.
RED BEAR-the sole existence of the police and BDF in belize to keep in check belizeans when they question the tyranical system the udp and pup mafia have created.