Man Fears to Walk the Streets Amidst S.O.E.  

It’s been two days since the government of Belize enacted another state of emergency and the Belize Police Department has issued wanted posters for nearly fifty men wanted under the S.O.E. Under an S.O.E., police officers conduct house raids, make arrest and detain individuals in areas that are known for gang activity. The department hopes that carrying out an S.O.E. will abate the number of gang-related crimes, that have been on the rise in the past two weeks. However, as police continue to make sweeps across southside Belize, residents are coming forward, claiming that they nor their loved ones should be included in the dragnet. Earlier today, we spoke with Alrick Lamb, who has been charged with being a member of a gang. He says that since the S.O.E. was declared on Tuesday, he has been fearful to walk the streets. On Wednesday, his brother Kurtis Lamb was detained, and he knows that police are also seeking him.

 

Voice of: Alrick Lamb, Wanted Under S.O.E.

“Weh mek I call unu fi mek I speak with unu today because I tired ah the harassment. Literally, I get harassed twenty-four and more. I neem feel safe to walk with my son on the street anymore, because everywhere we go. We there at Civic Center, we try to go free fi we mind at the beach, anywhere we go, police come and harass we. Da like we da neem fah Belize, we da neem citizen ah Belize City on a whole, None at all. The way how they treat we. Fih seh reason, I noh know, because dah no like we de out deh dih do anything bad or anything out of the way of harm people or anything like that. I, right now I fi go da work and I can’t even move because they post my picture on Facebook. If I could ah mi change weh paat I grow up, I would, because I noh want the harassment from police, but da noh like if I could go anywhere else. I noh got no next move to make any move to go anywhere else like that. But back ya I born and grow, so da back here I from, da back here I stay. Check my house, da right back here, so da back here I born and grow I don’t got nowhere else where I could go, if I could have gone somewhere else, I done gone because I tired of the police harassment.”