Tag: 2024-04-19

A mother came out swinging at the Belize Police Department earlier today for incarcerating her daughter under the conditions of the ongoing State of Emergency. Shelly Meighan, the mother of Ellis, Tyrone and Shaquille Meighan, all known to the law, told reporters this afternoon that her daughter is now the target of the S.O.E. Earlier this week, a wanted poster was issued for the whereabouts of Ellis Meighan in connection with the murder of Roy Burgess in Placencia on April fourteenth. Burgess was inside his vehicle around mile twenty-two on the Placencia Road, along with a female companion, Maia James, when a man approached and opened fire on them. According to Shelly Meighan, since the weekend murder, police have visited her house looking for Ellis Meighan. At the time when the officers arrived on Wednesday evening, Meighan said that her daughter, Shanique was at home on a video call with her other brother, Tyrone, but she was waiting for someone to pick her up to go out.

Voice of: Shelly Meighan, Mother of Shanique Meighan

“My daughter was here with me. Police came ten minutes before my daughter left this house and run up in here and came to search. Ten minutes before she was detained she was here in my house. They didn’t take my daughter. When the police left – because my daughter had already called her friend to come and pick her up here because she didn’t want to stay here police was running up here. So I tell her – I know why she doesn’t want to go through that stress. I don’t want to share it with the media. So I tell her, okay then, go. So she done had her bag packed. She was just waiting for her friend to come and pick her up. She left like 15 minutes. So I said I’m gonna call her to tell her make sure if she go anywhere make sure she has Wi Fi, that I could call her. I was calling and no answer. So I said, this is not my daughter. She normally answer my call. I said maybe music is loud in the car. No answer. I text, no answer.  Apparently, I sit there in this chair and I got a call and the call said “Miss, you need to come to Queen Street Police Station because we have your daughter detained.” And I said, “you sure my daughter is detained?” He said, “yes, she’s here.” I said, okay then. She didn’t tell me to come to the station, so I jump in my vehicle and I went to police station. When I went there, I was getting a phone call off my daughter phone now to say “ma where you at?” I tell her I deh right here at Queen Street di come inside. Ih say “okay, come for mi particulars.” I walk in Queen Street Police Station and the officer there say, “we wa bring her out right now mek yoh get her particulars.” When they brought her out, I asked her, “Why did they detain you?” Ih say, “they pick me up with bally” like that she say, “and they detain two ah we and tell me if I nuh give up my brother, they’ll send me up fi State of Emergency.” Those were her exact words to me.”

Shelly Meighan says her daughter tried to console her about what had happened and encouraged her not to worry. She walked us through her version of the sequence of events when she arrived at the police station. But things changed quickly from detention to incarceration and Meighan questions why her daughter is now at the Belize Central Prison under a State of Emergency when there are other females who have not been swept up under the S.O.E for their wanted relatives.

Voice of: Shelly Meighan, Mother of Shanique Meighan

“I asked the police officer, “Why is my daughter detained?” He say “your daughter is detained on the P. I. murder.” I asked who my daughter murder. He no answer. I said, okay, then I come home back. Okay. Now, why would you pick up my daughter and tell her if she don’t give up her brother you wa send she fi S.O.E? First thing, that’s her constitutional right they’re violating because she nuh commit no crime. My son is allegedly wanted for a murder. He – I nuh know weh he deh and I – that’s not my problem at this point. That’s the police job to find my son and pick him up. State of Emergency start March. I’m 100 percent sure they don’t have every person that they wanted for that SOE. Nobody’s sister went up for a State of Emergency that they’re looking for, the ones that they don’t find, but my daughter went up for State of Emergency.”

Reporter

“Do you think your daughter is being basically held hostage until Ellis turns himself in?”

Voice of: Shelly Meighan

“That’s right. To me this is personal  because mein, why they call S.O.E., because of the amount of murder that is happening in Belize, right?  That’s the reason why they call SOE?  Have you seen any woman gone up for SOE under the State of Emergency? The amount of murders that have been happening, any woman gone up for State of Emergency? This is something that was discussed around a table. This is something higher than we know, [ih] have to be. Why my daughter? Because Ellis is allegedly wanted for a murder.  All of a – listen to me, if they wanted my daughter for S.O.E. there mi wa tek she from in the house. They never may wait till my daughter reach. And they should da mi do deh job. If they wanted to take Shanique up for S.O.E. – say she di  hide her brother – they supposed to mi do deh job and trail her and catch her in the act. Now! If you mi catch my daughter in the act of helping her brother red-handed, she could goh up fi State of Emergency because you catch her red-handed. I nuh say my boys deh da saint. Everybody know them. But it’s allegation because they don’t have any conviction. And this is our human rights because if Shanique went up for – remember what Mr. Musa said on the TV – he said the SOE is for well-known gang affiliates. So which gang is Shanique Meighan in if her brother already won their gang case? And I think they targeted Shanique because if they went for Tyrone, Tyrone is wanted right now but I don’t know what they want him for. If they went for Tyrone, maybe they already know the law that if Tyrone goh up back fi State of Emergency and already won his gang case, he can sue them, but Shanique did not win a gang case because Shanique had not gotten charged for being a member of a gang.”

Marion Ali

“Do you have any concern they might come for you next on the same grounds?

Voice of: Shelly Meighan

“That was my biggest concern because I said maybe if I went out with a bag, I would have gone up for State of Emergency, you understand what I’m saying?  Everybody walk out through that gate, police walk run here because they can see on my camera, you understand? And they knew that she was leaving with bags because of the camera and the boulevard. So they trail her. And they didn’t allow my daughter to even get a phone call to tell me that she is going to prison. This is the part that I don’t understand, because if you are going to prison, even without a charge sheet, you are detained, you are going on SOE. You can give her a phone call to let her know. Let me know my daughter is going up for a State of Emergency. You know how I got a phone call? A nice police officer allowed my daughter to get a phone call in the bus at Lord’s Ridge Cemetery and all I heard was, “Ma, deh di tek me up fi State of Emergency, nuh worry about me, I good. You just take care of yourself. I could handle this.”

A passing out ceremony was held today for two hundred and thirty-one new police officers at the National Police Training Academy. They are Squad Ninety-seven. This is the largest group of police recruit squad in the nation’s history. Additionally, Squad Ninety-seven also has more women police officers passing out than any recruit squad prior. Today, family members and friends of these recruits gathered on the compound in Belmopan beaming with joy and pride and they celebrated their achievements. Also present was Kareem Musa, the Minister of Home Affairs. He addressed the gathering.

Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs

“You make history today because you are members of the largest recruit squad in Belize’s history. Today we are honored to welcome a cadre of two hundred and thirty-one new police officers. More significant than that squad ninety-seven has proven to be a squad of firsts, with an unprecedented fifty-seven of its trainees being women. This constitutes nearly twenty-five percent of the squad, surpassing the United Nations standard of just twenty-percent. It is our hope that with steps such as these we are planting the seed of some day sooner rather than alter having our first woman commissioner of police. Today however I want to answer the question, what is a police officer for anyways. Graduates, a little under a year ago I stood here to remind squad ninety-six of a seminal message. Your job is the business of security, but it only becomes meaningful when people feel safe. You must remember you are many things to many people, but primarily you must remember that you are professional. Over these last few months, you have been given the skillsets to operate in any situation, ranging from basic first aid, public relations and communications and even financial literacy. All transferable skills are meant to make you resilient in any community setting.”

At today’s police passing out ceremony, Doctor Priscilla Brown, the Dean of Academics at the National Police Training Academy, spoke about the caliber of training Squad Ninety-Seven received. She noted that each new officer received instructions that meet regional and international requirements. We also heard from Abel Navarrete, one of the members of Squad Ninety-Seven. Here is what they had to say.

Dr. Priscilla Brown, Dean of Academics, National Police Training Academy

“Our training curriculum and the field training officer program represent the quality standards and competency for exemplary law enforcement. I have monitored instructional delivery to ensure that every instructor is taught to regional and international requirements. Therefore, it is an honor to confer you, squad ninety-seven, on the rights, privileges, responsibilities, and obligations thereunto. This conferral includes a commitment to duty and upholding high moral standards. You are reminded that you are expected to demonstrate unwavering commitment and exemplary service to the country and people of Belize.”

Abel Navarrete, Police Officer, Squad Ninety-Seven

“As Theodore Roosevelt once said, it is hard to fail but it is worst to never to have tried to succeed. It is the same sentiment that led all our fellow companions of squad ninety-seven in through those gates, into the National Police Training Academy on Sunday September seventeenth, 2023. Two hundred and thirty-nine men and women ready to lay anything on the line, leaving family, friends and loved ones behind to commence a seven-month training in hopes of pursuing a noble profession as an officer of the law. We all entered this facility as civilians and the transformation to becoming a police officer has been a vigorous and timely process. We were pushed physically and mentally beyond our limits.”