One man fed up with the culture of silence between the community and Bermuda Police has decided to do something about it.

Antonio Belvedere created posters now on display at the Bermuda College and areas frequented by young residents.

He feels the title 'Your Silence Gives Consent' says it all.

The 23-year-old also claims to be in talks with grocery stores on the Island to have the message in his posters printed on their shopping bags.

The daylight murder of Kimwandae Walker "was the last straw" that spurred him into action, Mr. Belvedere said.

He had helped organise peace marches and demonstrations through parts of the Island affected by violence but felt he had to do more after Mr. Walker's death.

The 35-year-old father-of-two was shot dead in front of his children while flying kites on Victor Scott Primary School field.

"After hearing about the shooting at Victor Scott I was sick to my stomach," Mr. Belvedere said. "There were more than 50 people on the field that day and to hear that none of them came forward to report what they saw is just unbelievable. If witnesses don't start speaking up this whole thing is just going to get worse.

"They can't use the excuse that they are concerned for their own safety for not coming forward. All they need to do is pick up a phone and call Crime Stoppers. Yeah, Bermuda is small and word gets around fast, but Crime Stoppers is based a thousand miles away in Miami. Their only job is to protect the person who provides the information it is basically impossible for it to get connected back to the witness."

Mr. Belvedere took to the streets to question young people about violence, gangs and cooperating with Police. He used that feedback as inspiration for his poster campaign and to gain personal insight.

He said he was given some positive suggestions but in general the comments made him "sad and angry". The youths with whom he spoke had an "unsettling" distrust of authority and pessimism about the future.

He said one 17-year-old blamed the Police and the Government for the influx of firearms and drugs into Bermuda.

"He told me 'guns don't rain from the sky and neither do bullets'. He said with all the Customs Officers and Police and the rest of it, how can all these guns and drugs get into Bermuda? There has to be someone high up letting this stuff come through the ports somebody is making a lot of money from all this."

Mr. Belvedere grew up in Spanish Point, Pembroke.

He suggested the lack of trust between Police and the community stems from the impersonal way in which the two groups interact; that young people only see officers when they or their friends are in trouble.

"Growing up in Spanish Point we had a PC Perot as our parish constable," he said. "He was [in the neighbourhood] every day and at least once a week he would come knocking on our door to check up on my brothers and I. Personally, I think he kept me out of trouble because I knew that behind PC Perot was a paddy wagon.

"It seems like the style of policing these days is too impersonal and intimidating. The Police are out there and they are visible but it seems like there isn't that connection between the Police and community anymore. It is like the Police and community both have an 'us against them' attitude."

Alex MacDonald, of the Bermuda Police Service, is a former community beat officer.

He said that present-day Bermuda requires a different form of policing than it did a decade or two ago.

"It is a different time for Police these days," said Mr. MacDonald. "Now that guns are becoming more common, a regular traffic stop, for example, requires the officer to take more precautions than in the past.

"It is the Police Commissioner's view that every officer is a community officer. So as the Island gets more accustomed to the Community Action Teams that patrol their areas, we hope more personal relationships will develop."