The alleged gun running from our Customs yard shouldn’t be a surprise to any Belizean who is aware of what has been happening here for years. Smuggling has been a moneymaking activity for Belizeans almost from the “get go,” and I’m talking about the inception of the Belize settlement! Belize smugglers operated as pirates in the 1600’s, as gun runners during the U.S. Civil War, and they collected tidy sums from rum running after Prohibition became law from 1919 to 1933 in the United States. Let’s be real. Belize is geographically on a route from the cocaine-producing countries in South America to the country that fuels the majority of that trade – the United States, a country awash with huge sums of money that will probably corrupt any GOB agency that has to deal with it.
So “Sammy,” a euphemism for all those who are tempted, runs. One of the problems with this level of corruption is that it infects the activities of just about every level of government that comes in contact with it! Is this a serious problem? You better believe it!
There is no way low-salaried civil servants, police and otherwise, can be expected to resist the dollars that are casually offered from major drug traffickers in return for such supposedly “innocent” responses as turning away from obvious movements in the areas of their jurisdictions. What happens is that small time “freelancers,” those who aren’t “protected” by well-organized traffickers, become the poster boys for the news while those who are “connected” are never even arrested.
The Dean Barrow UDP government has a difficult row to hoe. This is why I am still more than a bit circumspect in my criticism. When I wrote, “Be careful what you wish for, you got it,” I was well aware of what any government, coming in on the heels of the PUP Musa-Fonseca disaster, as well as trying to deal with a tiny country’s global problems, would face.
I am “retiring” from formal teaching in a few months. I have enjoyed the years that I have taught in the formal arena, but I am 60 years old and it is time to move on. I hope to spend the remaining years allotted to me playing music, writing music, writing articles, in addition to a book entitled, “Scamble,” that I have not made progress on because of time restrictions.
“Retirement” for me doesn’t mean “nothing to do.” There is no way I can lay around and do nothing. What it means is an opportunity to do those things that mean the most to me.
One of the most satisfying experiences of my formal teaching career in Belize is when students whom I have taught years ago come up to me and tell me how much their experiences in my class years ago, have meant to them! It has brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. That’s why we teach! It certainly has nothing to do with the money! I’m afraid to start mentioning names, because if I do I will invariably leave some people out who should be cited; believe me there are too many of my colleagues who deserve the ultimate respect for me to remember them all. Besides, I’m beginning to suffer from “old timer’s disease.”
One of the Government’s “crime control” proposals is for lengthy “preventive detention,” but a proposed amendment to the Firearms Act says that if you are in the company of a person who has an unlicensed firearm in his or her possession, it is your burden to prove to the Court that you had no knowledge of that person’s possession of that weapon!
This is not just a minor “amendment!” It is a continuing process that is rapidly shredding the Constitution’s protection of human rights to bits, like a paper shredder destroys documents. Now the burden of proof has been shifted to the accused! Instead of the State having to prove that a citizen is guilty, the citizen has to prove that he/she is innocent!
Given the resources of the state, these laws will put the average citizen at a serious disadvantage. Look at the scenarios created by this “amendment.” A friend offers me a ride and I accept the offer. While I’m in his car, the police stop him and find an unlicensed gun in the vehicle. Now, how in hell can I prove that I had no idea he was carrying that gun? This “amendment” will allow the police to arrest and charge me if someone on a bicycle stops to talk to me and when the cops run up on him they find him with an illegal firearm!
This stuff is crazy! It won’t reduce crime: it will simply put a lot of innocent citizens at risk of being labeled as “criminals.” We are already in the top ten of countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of our citizens in prison. Maybe we should arrest and incarcerate everybody! Then we won’t have any more crime, except for the crimes committed by the “elite.” To paraphrase “Pops,” the great Louis Armstrong, “What a wonderful world this would be!”
When we have discussed the Constitution in social studies classes, I have emphasized the stark reality that changing the Constitution can be for worse as well as for better. Our Constitution is simply too easy to change All it requires is a ¾ majority in the House of Representatives, and three of our governments have had that majority in our 27 short years of existence as an “independent” country.
Legislation that forces the citizen to prove his/her innocence flies directly in the face of every concept of what a democracy is or should be. Belize has been traveling that road since 1981. The police can raid our homes without any warrant or any oversight from the judiciary. All they have to do is to allege that they suspect drugs or guns. Citizens can be stopped and searched on the streets or in their vehicles for the same so-called “reasons.” Now, government is preparing to detain suspects for long periods of time, and, to complete the erosion of any semblance of privacy, by legalizing wiretapping.
The drug laws allow police to charge all people at a residence if they find the smallest amount of a “controlled substance,” even children or visitors who just happen to be at that residence. And now the Firearms Control Act will be amended to extend the burden of proof to the citizen again!
Yet, all of these draconian “laws” put into practice in the past have not put a dent in the crime statistics. The only way to get a handle on the crime problem is to combine firm but fair enforcement with serious social spending to alleviate the problem at the roots. Everything else is spitting into the wind. Why is this so difficult for government types to understand?
A stratified and divided country with such blatant differences in the ways that “laws” are applied, will continue to go downhill. Some citizens are arrested and thrown into the “piss house” where they may be abused by police and/or other prisoners, or remanded to Hattieville until such time as they go to court for arraignment. Others are given the run of the police station, allowed to use their cell phones to call family, legal assistance and to arrange for bail, and some can even utilize a government vehicle to leave the confines of jail for a Saturday night out on the town! It’s money and connections that make Sammy run. See Sammy run. Dick and Jane see Sammy run. When Dick and Jane grow up they want to run just like Sammy! And so the cycle repeats itself.