Reinforcing a Culture of Fear

Crime and violence has inundated Belize with such a fury that, yes, even habitual criminals themselves are not safe.

For the families and friends of murdered victims, and victims of crimes generally, there is this eerie and gritty feeling that life is not life. The memories of their loved one no doubt triggers the unmistakable reality that today in Belize, a person’s life hangs in the balance each day. Death, for sure, respects nobody. The frenzied spate of murders in Belize, understandably has catapulted many into a strained attitude of life. Life, for all the joy it brings at birth, these days brings also the painful reality of how mortal we are.

Everyday on the daily and nightly newscasts, there is the grim, ghastly reporting of Belizeans riddled with bullets, chopped, stabbed or mauled with some weapon; or our women and female children dehumanized by these sexual monsters who rape at will.

There seems to be no letting up by the criminals. They are cognizant of the fear we all have as Belizeans and thus they have become more brazen and callous in committing their violent crimes, caring not who sees them perpetrating their evil.

No one feels safe, no one IS safe- teachers, students, mothers, daughters, housewives, doctors, street vendors, religious ministers all are joined together at the belly of crime.

This fear is compounded with a sense of hopelessness as the UDP government and in particular the Minister of National Security daily manifests how clueless, incompetent and bankrupt of ideas they are in trying to address this engulfing crime tsunami.

People are fed up, tired, angry with the criminals and the Government’s seeming  indifference to the plight of the everyday man who has to square off with the criminals to defend his life, property, friends and family. Belizeans’ frustration is further enhanced by the obvious inability of the DPP’s office to secure convictions. Indeed, as a judge has commented, the word nolle prosequi has become a part of the Belizean lexicon.

So justice, which is really the only consolation families and friends of murdered victims can claim, has become deformed like just about everything else in society.

The DPP and the government says this is because witnesses refuse to go and testify at trials; that it is the situation where repeatedly, witnesses and/or their family members are threatened; that in some cases, the threats have been carried out- that a culture of fear has been instilled in the Belizean psyche.

Paralyzed by this state of affairs, this UDP government has responded, finally, but yet woefully off tangent. They have passed a law that will allow a statement given by a witness to be used in a trial where that witness fears for his life, or the life of a member of his family.

The law appears a novelty, an ingenious breakthrough in crime fighting. But the devil, as they say, is in the details.

No one knows, for instance, how it will be established in Court that a witness is fearful for his life. Will that witness have to go to Court to say that? If that is so, then the law is counterproductive. The main rationale for the law is to protect those who are being threatened, presumably, to shield them from having to go to Court in the first place. But the flip side of that coin is that if a witness can merely sign a statement which states that he is fearful for his life and his witness statement is taken as gospel, then all kinds of abuse can flow from that. I can, then, give a statement accusing someone I dislike of a crime and merely state further that I do not want to go to Court because I am fearful of my life. In such a case, I can have this person be convicted just like that.

The new law is fraught with confusion and shortsightedness. Reports are that no less than the justices of the peace, who under the new law will be the ones to record the statements, are up in arms. They have foreseen the potential abuse of the new law and they themselves are worrying about their safety. The feeling is that the criminals may eventually want to retaliate at them. In this regard, the new law, rather than addressing the problem of crime and securing convictions, further breeds a culture of fear. In such a culture, criminals can only thrive more. So much for this government’s 360 degrees plan!

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