Another young man, 17-year-old Shariffe Smith, got wasted last week by multiple gun shots in the City, and, according to reports, he was on the way to reform with the CYDP.
Also last week, CYDP officers appeared on television with their latest “poster boy”, who they claim is a reformed person, now versed in computer technology. The young man, who reportedly spent three years on remand for a murder charge, and had the charge withdrawn when the witness failed to appear, has maintained that he is “innocent”. Now, which is it, CYDP; reformed, or innocently/wrongly charged? Perhaps it is not such a good thing to be “showing off” these “reformed” young men.
Mon. Mar. 23, 2009
Thankfully, the shotgun clicked, when one of three masked men reportedly pointed it at a would be victim’s head and pulled the trigger in the latest armed robbery at Cox Tire Shop on Vernon Street on Friday night.
Thurs. Mar. 12, 2009
The beat goes on. Recently, three murders in four days. More young men shooting and killing, or shooting and injuring, and more of them going to jail. “Benji” Williams is the most dramatic murder recently; execution style, while he was painting a house.
Mon. Feb. 16, 2009
Nothing changes, it seems. Emmerson “Emmy Bo” Faber, Port employee, was shot and killed while playing dice with friends inside a yard in an alley off West Canal Street. The shooter shot “from behind a fence” according to some reports. Nothing changes, only the victims, and, perhaps, the shooters.
Wed. Jan. 21, 2009
I wrote the piece below over a year ago. Since then, Mrs. Felix has herself passed on. May she rest in peace. Also since then, the cycle has been repeated over and over again, most recently with the Barney Cunningham murder. The ideas expressed, I think, are still relevant.
BELIZE CITY, Tues. Dec. 4, 2007
The tragedy visited upon Mrs. Therese Felix, losing another son, her youngest, by gunshot, must be unbearable, and her initial emotional reaction is quite understandable. Our condolences to Mrs. Felix and the rest of her family. When any of us reaches the point of total frustration or hopelessness, our instinctive reaction is to think “an eye for an eye”.
The irony of the situation is that that is exactly what our present laws dictate. The punishment should suit the crime, once a person is found guilty. According to the laws on our law books presently, the penalty for first degree murder is death by hanging. The problem is, getting a guilty verdict demands witnesses, witnesses who are alive, and brave enough to take the chance in the present climate. For that reason, I don’t believe the cries for capital punishment are the answer.
From what I’ve heard, Feron was a good youth, a law abiding and respectful youth, a happy and ambitious youth. Feron just got a job. Feron did not hang out. Why Feron? Why Feron?
That may be why. That may be exactly why!
It seems that all the marches, demonstrations, candlelight vigils, calls on talk shows, letters to the papers, preaching from the pulpit, are all ignored, by deaf ears. Only the converted are listening. The disenchanted and alienated youth are not hearing any of that. Their minds are closed to anything that society, older heads, say.
The youth who commit these heinous acts of violence and murder are living in another world, another reality. Bombarded daily with negativity in their music, their daily survival realities and their “normal” verbal exchanges, their minds are numb to the sensitivity and values shared by other less dehumanized and traumatized, and more educated and informed members of our society. They don’t hear the cries of others; the pain and anguish of mothers. They are not listening to anybody else’s problems. They hear only themselves and their problems, their hunger and despair, their own frustration and neglect, their own anger and envy, their own jealousy and hate for anyone else who is “making it”, for respectable society, for those who are making progress.
There’s the gangland style killing of rivals. And there’s the crab in the barrel mentality, vengeance against those among us who are finding a way out of our poverty and despair, leaving us behind; going ahead to their success, leaving us to stew in our frustration, jealousy and hate. The “beef” is often just a symptom of a festering disease of ignorance, hopelessness, self hate and jealousy.
That’s what I suspect some of these killings are about. And vigils and marches and demonstrations for peace won’t change anything, unless we also take actions, meaningful, concrete actions to ensure that no one is left behind. When the freedom train of hope passes through an area of the ghetto, it should pick up all, everybody, or none at all. But if you will escape alone, then go far, far away, away from the barrel, away from the envious, angry, hateful eyes of your former fellow sufferers.