WHY THE UDP HAS LOST THE CRIME WAR

It is a bitter harvest we reap; heads bowed in grief as we carry  bullet riddled bodies of children, teenagers and even senior citizens to early graves, planted and watered with blood and tears. Vengeance our only recourse as the justice system fails, and the cycle of hate and war starts over again.

This is not poetry but rather an attempt to illustrate what has become life in Belize City.  Ambulances and Police sirens scream from 7a.m. All  through “sunhot” middays and afternoons and under the cover of darkness, the carnage continues with heavy caliber weaponry sounding  like bombs over Iraq a la George Bush.  But we who live here are too tired, too war weary to be shocked or awed anymore. We just want to know what happened to Belize City, why can’t the Government and the Police protect lives  and property and where on the ballot did day that a vote for the UDP was a one way ticket to death, despair and degradation aka hell.

A review of the sequence of events from 2005 up to an including the first year of the UDP’s term in office shows a disturbing subset of facts and figures that could well explain why this UDP government is unable to exercise any controls over the violence and related destruction that characterizes our city’s streets.  It’s just a matter of harvest;Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matt 7:16

When the then Opposition wanted to undermine the duly elected government of the day , it publicly announced a policy of “sustained civil disobedience”. t the time of the assault on the National Assembly building, the future Minister for National Security led that assault.  He was seen to have had a whistle with which he signaled the protesters to open the ranks so that a group armed with sling shots could  launch a barrage of ball bearings onto the National Assembly building, shattering its windows and disrupting the House Meeting that was in session. Organizing and perhaps providing logistical support for the lawless, rented  crowd  set the precedent for UDP sanctioned violence against the Police and the State.  This was “not a good thing” and therefore could only lead to the contempt that the UDP followers have for  law enforcement and the rule of law.

The newly anointed Member of the British Empire led the charge in the House by threatening to “throw a grenade een ya”. He gets Queen’s honors in recognition for the threat uttered  three years later, even as  the first of many grenades gets thrown in the city’s streets.  Moments after declaring victory at the polls, the soon to be appointed Police minister declared that he would take down all the cameras, an innovative and effective crime fighting and personal safety system that was already in place. And he did. Shortly thereafter the gangs started their turf war as the sale and open use of drug  paraphernalia escalated in clear public view and directly beneath where cameras , rendered useless still existed.

A senior Police Officer who had the respect of the streets was set to watch over the gangs and to protect their interest AGAINST other elements of the Police trying to do their job to protect the citizenry and preserve law an  order. The authority of the Police was knowingly compromised so as to keep pre-election (implied) promises to “the gangsta crews “ that had served as foot soldiers in the pre-election  politically backed violence.

And then there was the Ross Kemp Documentary.  Done in just a few days, Ross Kemp hooked up directly with the government agency that was set up to deal with and prevent gangland warfare. Kemp’s piece was largely viewed with skepticism as s foreign journalist  exaggerating the proliferation of gangs, the level of killings they had perpetrated on each other and the arsenal of high powered weaponry they had stockpiled. Fast forward to the situation in the city’s streets in 2010  and keeping in mind that a Police officer drove Kemp around to the gangs with full GOB consent, and we know that everything those gangstas said to Kemp was true. The grenades detonated since then look like what he was shown, the turf areas identified have been bloodily fought after and it would be interesting to see how many of the persons interviewed have since been killed or stand accused of a killing in the streets of Belize City.

The seeds of lawlessness were planted and watered before and after the current crew got into office. They have sowed a wind and now we reap the whirlwind of violence and lawlessness that has made life intolerable and death in the streets almost inevitable.

As the Bible aptly says” Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Mt. 12.33

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