Five people, including four minors and a nineteen-year-old, were hauled before the Belize City Magistrate’s Court this morning after being charged under the State of Emergency (SOE) regulations. The group—two thirteen-year-olds, a fourteen-year-old, a seventeen-year-old, and nineteen-year-old Donie Wite—were accused of assembling in a group of more than three on May tenth, at the corner of Administration Drive and Ordonez Street. The SOE was declared in parts of Belize City following a spike in deadly shootings. But when the group appeared before Chief Magistrate Deborah Rogers, she found no grounds to proceed with the case. Calling it a “victimless offense,” she dismissed the charges, stating, quote, It’s entrapment when someone is arrested for something they don’t know is a crime, end quote. The courtroom heard troubling claims that the arresting officer was intoxicated and abusive. Wite and the minors said they were simply talking and had no idea they were breaking any law. The Chief Magistrate advised them to file a formal complaint with the Professional Standards Branch. The case has raised serious questions about how the SOE is being enforced—and whether innocent young people are being unfairly targeted.
