Nothing the Europeans do or advocate surprises me. To paraphrase Kamala, I know their history, and I know they were executing people in the most horrific ways for the entire second millennium. In the third millennium now, the Europeans are saying to poor, disorganized countries like ours, that they will not assist us in any way if we execute our own people. Meanwhile, in the United States of America, executions continue routinely, and Europe won’t say anything because they need American military help with NATO to protect them from Russia and China and North Korea.
Personally, I don’t see how you can discipline people if you cannot punish them. If you can’t punish malefactors, they will just laugh at you and continue on their merry way. One of the main reasons that Singapore, a country with minimal natural resources, is so wealthy and successful, is because they discipline their people, thoroughly and unhesitatingly.
Where the matter of executions in Belize is concerned, I was not in favor of the last three hangings here. That would be the hangings of William “Hani” Robinson in 1974; Seymour Thomas, a Jamaican, in 1981; and Kent Bowers in 1985. But I absolutely do not agree that the law which empowers the state to execute should be taken off our law books. To please whom? Europeans and wannabe Europeans?
Hani was an acquaintance of mine, and I did not know him to be a violent person. He was considered dishonest in lifestyle. I believe he was fooling around with some crazy drugs when he stabbed a young policeman on Swing Bridge. But, the law took its course.
In the case of Seymour Thomas, a Belizean contractor by the name of Warrior, a brother of the maternal grandmother of my son, Cordel, told me personally that Thomas could not have committed the double murders (at a house around Mile 41 or so on the Western Highway) because he was working with him, Warrior, somewhere else.
The Bowers case was one that became more and more mysterious as time went along.
My read on those hangings is as follows: Hani’s victim was a policeman; Seymour Thomas was to be an example to Belizeans who were fighting against the Heads of Agreement in the summer of 1981; and Bowers’ victim was a member of a high society family.
(Shifting gears a little, The Battle of Algiers (1966), one of the greatest films ever made, opens with an Algerian nationalist being led to the gallows by the ruling French. The nationalist shouts his defiance to his Algerian comrades in the prison even as he is about to be executed.)
There were two hangings in Bermuda in the black power days of the early 1970s as a result of high British officials being killed. The chief of security at the Bermuda prison was a man named George James, who died a few years ago. George James was a first cousin of my late wife. He lived for many years in Ranchito, where I got to meet him. He had had to lead both of those two persons who were executed in Bermuda to the gallows. I give him big respect for his strength.
Belize has not executed anyone for almost four decades. One reason is that Belize cannot get murder convictions. And one reason Belize cannot get murder convictions is that witnesses to murders are themselves killed to prevent them from testifying in court.
Under British colonialism, Belizeans would testify at murder trials because they knew they were protected by the British. But, because we Belizeans are unable or unwilling to protect our own when they are witnesses to murder, we do not testify. In fact, recently an elected area representative and former UDP Cabinet Minister expressed his reluctance in the House on national radio and television to make available video evidence of a seemingly lesser crime, rape, which he reportedly had in his possession.
If I am a young boy growing up in the mean streets of the old capital, I know that I can be punished by the street leaders. It is therefore the street leaders who have the power to discipline the youth. The state’s ability to discipline is actually less than that of the street leaders. So where does Mr. Smith get off feeling the need to remove a law from the books which isn’t even being utilized? Does he have some kind of answer to our crime and violence besides legal fees?