Be Afraid…Be Very Afraid!

Contributed

While the skyrocketing cost of living continues to dominate the day to day lives of Belizeans, there is mounting evidence that unrelenting crime such as senseless murders and armed assaults, has resulted in most of us living in fear and being terrified to leave the false security of our homes. Indeed, residents of Belize City’s Southside have grown accustomed to violent flare-ups among warring gangs, and many fall asleep nightly to the staccato sound of automatic gunfire.

Although most violent crimes are confined to poor neighborhoods and the business areas, there is no doubt that their impact has also been felt throughout the city including the affluent middle and upper class neighborhoods that were once unscathed by crime. The means that we bunker down in our homes, pray ad nauseum, and hope that we do not become the criminals’ latest victims whenever we must go outside to attend school, work, shop, or keep appointments among others.

As a result of this unabated fear, many of us have purposefully altered our lifestyles to diminish the probability that we will become a crime statistic. We avoid driving through known hot spots, refuse to walk alone in our own neighborhoods during the day much less at night, install as many security features in our homes as we can afford, and arm ourselves to the teeth. For the most part, we flee to our homes without delay resulting in the city being largely deserted at night.

At the same time, although the criminals seem poised to yet again break the murder record set only last year, there seems to be a lack of government resolve to tackle the declining state of law and order. In other words, many of us strongly believe that Prime Minister the Honorable Dean Barrow and his Cabinet are not doing enough to protect us or to punish the perpetrators of crime. It is clear that since he took office, no serious progress has been made in the fight against crime.

PM Barrow has also failed to overhaul the outdated criminal justice system in order to guarantee that those accused of committing crime are vigorously prosecuted. As it is, criminals such as those who are charged with murder, walk free daily as prosecutors enter nolle prosequis in court as witnesses refuse to testify in fear of their lives. In addition, many accused of other serious offenses are also released on bail only to be arrested later for committing similar offenses.

Worse still, Minister of National Security Hon. Carlos Perdomo seems to have no viable solution to tackle the deteriorating crime situation, and has failed in every attempt to restore our sense of security. As the country’s top law enforcement official, he has appeared overwhelmed by his responsibilities and perhaps as a result has delegated them to his subordinates, particularly the police, without offering any policy direction or providing more resources to fight crime.

It seems that we are going in the wrong direction in the fight against crime and clearly the police have lost ground to the criminals who have become more brazen even when confronted by armed officers. The result has been heavy handed policing that has turned many law abiding citizens against the very persons who are tasked to protect us. We refuse to cooperate with them because we are not treated according to the law and they target everyone who lives in hot spots.

In June 2008, the Ministry of National Security commissioned Jamaican policing expert Harold Crooks to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Police, make recommendations for the Department’s modernization, and devise strategies to lower our high crime rate.  While Crooks has completed his report and a preliminary report on his findings was presented in January, we have yet to be told by PM Barrow how soon the recommendations will be implemented.

In all fairness we accept that the crime situation cannot be cleaned up overnight. But we are becoming frustrated at PM Barrow’s inability to respond effectively to the serious threats that crime poses to our society despite the increasing public pressure. He must recognize the urgency of the situation and act or we will continue to frighten off visitors to the country in the process doing irreparable damage to the all important foreign exchange tourist industry.

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