Every society has its own character, its own culture and its own personality. It has its strengths and weaknesses, its capacity for greatness and tendency to mediocrity. It also has the power to transform and recreate itself to advance to hither levels of worthiness. The citizens of our beloved country of Belize have the right to aspire to become the shining light of democracy that God intended it to be but, for this to happen, all our civic, religious and political leaders have to come together and work for the common good.
One of the problems we have to overcome on the road to becoming a peaceful and prosperous nation is our inability, up to now, to deal effectively with the criminal element in our society. It appears that the present government is prepared to consider seriously, some stern measures to bring down the rate of crimes of violence and, law abiding citizens, who should have nothing to fear from any measure, however intrusive, should be in a cooperative mood but, there are limits.
Some time ago, power was given by law to the police to enter the premises of private persons in an effort to search and take prosecutorial action against anyone found on the premises where drugs or illegal firearms are discovered. This required the suspension of a citizen’s right to be undisturbed in his place of abode without a proper search warrant. The law provided that the owner and persons on the premises where drugs, firearms or ammunition were found, were presumed to be guilty of offence, thereby eroding a cardinal principal in our legal system, which is an accused person’s presumption of innocence. The objective of this law may be desirable but, the means were and are reprehensible. Experience has shown that despite frequent raids by the police, in the exercise of their power to search persons suspected of having drugs or firearms, the results have not been worth the trouble, expense and aggravation, and there have been numerous complaints of the police abusing their power.
The two measures that the government would like the citizenry to consider are, in some respects, daunting, because of the fear that those who are given the necessary power will abuse it. That has been our experience, and it is doubtful that we can be assured that there will be a different result this time.
It is presumed that the targets of the Preventative Detention law would be the members of gangs who would ordinarily retaliate by shooting at members of another gang who might be responsible for killing one of their own. Removing the individuals who might be planning to take reprisals from off the scene for a specified period, will have this good effect. It will prevent them from taking precipitate and indiscriminate action with collateral casualties. Is there another desirable objective of this law? If not, is it worth the cash and effort that is required to institute and execute it?
The other measure, that is, the power to intercept communication between citizens, could be an exceedingly powerful weapon to fight crime because, communication is vital to the conduct of all operations legal or illegal. There can be no doubt that many criminals could be brought to justice if their intercepted messages were admissible as evidence in court. But, this weapon would be like a two-edged sword, for there will be no way to ensure that information which individual citizens have a right to keep private will not become public.
I think it is reasonable to conclude that the main targets of the operation which will follow from the proposed measure, if it is approved, will be those engaged in the drug trade at all levels. This belief is based on the fact that more than half of the crimes of violence committed in Belize, as reported by the police, are drug-related. So that a successful campaign to suppress the drug trade would make it possible for the police to deal successfully with crime in general.
Will a law to intercept private communication help to fight the war against drugs? Decidedly. Will it as a consequence reduce crime in general? Without a doubt. And so, will we ultimately win the war against drugs? I doubt it very much, because it has been shown elsewhere that the drug trade is like the HYDRA HEADED MONSTER. Its heads multiply when they are cut off. Perhaps we will be satisfied with reducing violent crime but, we will have to pay a heavy price. A price that the citizens of America, which has been engaged in a war against drugs, are not prepared to pay.
The leaders of our society have the capacity to determine what are the best ways to deal with crime. They did so in 1992, when there was a Crime Commission. If their recommendations had been followed, the young people who later formed gangs would have been in a national service corps. I believe that the citizens of Belize know best how to solve their own problems. We have to start by understanding and defining them. Then consider how they came about before putting forward ways to solve them.
I think that it is time for the formation of another Crime Commission composed of our political, civic, and religious leaders with very comprehensive terms of reference charged to conduct, as a matter of urgency, nationwide consultation with our most informed and able citizens on the subject of the root causes of crime, crime control, prevention and eradication and, to produce a report with their recommendations in the shortest possible time.