Making Peace through Basketball

Police Commissioner Chester Williams says the Leadership Intervention Unit, the Police Department and the Ministry of Home Affairs have been working on effectively addressing the crime situation in the Old Capital. One such initiative is the Live Life Youth Basketball Tournament 2022. The event took place over the weekend at the Lopez Mateo Basketball Court in Belize City. Police Commissioner Chester Williams told us more. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Certainly it is good not just for the police but the community on a whol. As you know that this basketball tournament is part of our crime fighting strategy where we try to bring the young men from the different areas together to do intervention through sports. It has been going on for five months now on today is the culmination of it where we have the different teams competing for 3rd place, 2nd  place and 1st place and so it’s an exciting day for them certainly the prize that goes along with each place is exciting for them so we see where it goes from there. Certainly we’ve seen that the young men who are a part of this basketball tournament they truly have been doing their best to keep the peace among themselves. Yes there are still some people within their respective communities who seemingly want to continue to behave as if they don’t want to adopt behaviors that is compatible with human behavior and I don’t think it will be right for us to drag them into what the others from their communities are doing and so while we see a flare up right now in Belize City where crime is concerned it is something we’re looking at very seriously and particularly in the Antelope Street Extension area and you know Hard Rock team is from Antelope Extension and again the Complex area their team is in and again Complex is one of the areas that is causing the flare ups but like I said those persons who are a part of the team are not a part of the ongoing feud.”