The CRIME situation in BELIZE.

SOCIOLOGY OF CRIME IN BELIZE

PM Barrow´s comments on crime and social conditions in Belize.



"The point is, while we must attack the social conditions that breed this kind of mentality, we have to go at that particular element hard and it's not just with respect to the on-the- ground efforts of the GSU, it is as well to broaden and deepen the legal infrastructure so that the sort of penal catchment area can be widened," he said.

______________________________________


Minister of Education, Patrick Faber, while discussing a new building to open a poverty type, uneducated school training system made a comment on social conditions found in the South Side of Belize City, the port town.


The survey showed that the congested part of the city for living conditions, produced a lot of young males without schooling. Most had quit school before even finishing elementary levels. Standard 6 in the Belize educational system. The survey showed that young males refused to go to school. They did not want to and they were supported by their parent ( mostly single mothers ) in this idea.

The areas in this country that have this problem are primarily CREOLE culture. Found in the port Belize City, Esperanza, Roaring Creek and often Dangriga. The people of these areas still communicate verbally with very limited vocabularies, they speak a BROAD DIALECT called CREOLE, sort of a bastardized English of the 17 th century. 50 years ago this was the main language of the country, with the then much smaller population. Black Creole culture dominated and the Creole dialect or language was the dominant varient of English. The population has grown a lot since those 50 years and nowadays the idea of having a plantation and doing some subsistance fishing is no longer viable as a port town life style. To find a paying job you have to have some education. Those that speak CREOLE as a first language, or dialect, mostly are nowadays relegated to manual labor. They get the poorest paid jobs when they can find a salaried job. Education has been on the mend for several decades now and we have many people with advanced degrees and most young people with ambition have either High School, or Associate Degree. The tertiary education by product has meant that for CREOLE ONLY speakers, has produced a lot of job applicants who are, you could say, bi-lingual, they can speak the CREOLE dialect, not understood by foreigners, and International quality English, though most Belizeans understand Creole, though it is dying out in the Western and Northern part of the country. From their higher education viewpoint, they have also learned to express themselves in International English. Gradually, except for pockets, International English has become the norm. Teachers and civil servants were once always CREOLE speakers, but nowadays the transformation to a higher educated paid workforce, with more labor competition, has meant the CREOLE speakers no longer have much choices as to employment. Certainly nothing in higher paid employment. Not to forget that the population has grown to be mostly Spanish speakers of the Mestizo class. Creoles have shrunk from 97% of the population to 20% of the population.


The result has been a drift toward professional career criminals, born and bred in the slums, gravitating toward the easier work and higher pay of crime. Crime itself over fifty years, has progressed from career thieves and cat burglars, to violent crime, murder of victims to get rid of witness and evidence, while leading a life that is a career of itself, of robbing people in street robberies, home invasions and certainly targeting stores, payrolls and selling of addictive crack cocaine to people enduced into trying crack, which enslaves them without originally being aware. The gangs dealing in crime actually GLOAT over stupid addicts, and there is always a percentage of a population, genetically disposed to addictive things, like alcohol, marijuana and crack smoking. The criminal forces have learned to hook youngsters early in life and once addicted they are a source of money for the rest of their lives.


In essence, while there will always be occasional crimes of opportunity, crimes of passion and those lacking anger management and peer pressure in any civil society, of any country. A whole industry has expanded and grown up now fueled mostly by CREOLES who never finished primary school, have no intention too and they have learned that CRIME PAYS and is a worthwhile substitute for going fishing, or growing food on a plantation. With the rise of living standards, the easy going life of yesteryear, with kerosene lamps, buckets for toilets is gone. The cost of a higher standard of living and material costs that go along with it, means that these CREOLE enclaves of uneducated, poorly speaking CREOLE speakers, can only find the money to live and match their peers with material goodies, through a life of career crime. They are the recent survey showed, choosing this course of life, deliberately.


Sad to say this class of youths and adults have learned by an inadequate justice system, that violence pays, murder pays and the crime wave experienced in the port town is the result. It does not seem to be a sociological problem so much, as an inadequate justice system. Most policemen are their peers and come from the streets themselves and understand them well. In essence, we have a situation, where a small segment of our greater society is in a CIVIL WAR with the greater population. Deliberately so, because they can get away with it. Some of course are pre-disposed. It is a life style choice. There is not much compassion in me for criminals enslaving young people for life, to addiction by crack cocaine sales.


As the universe shows and also our own planet Earth, life is about EAT or be EATEN and this segment of our society have turned into predators and we the greater population have become their prey, by their own choice. Not by force of circumstance. In a civilized society, it is the role of our taxes, to pay for security to protect us masses of citizens from the vicious predators, the sharks, the crocodiles and snakes among our human population. We are like a school of anchovies swirling around, trying to confuse the sharks, the whales, the marlin and sailfish that prey on us. We have chosen to pay taxes and hire mercenaries to protect us. Unfortunately this is not working very well. Since it is a WAR, not made from us the prey, or greater population of our civilized society, then it seems we need to be more aggressive in this war and meet fear and terror, with fear and terror in self defence. Make no mistake about it, the predators are in human terms and of civil organized society, EVIL persons. Wild animals that need to be put down.


The subject has more complexities than this. For instance first time offenders, or those youngsters coaxed into taking free crack cocaine and becoming unwittingly addicted, against those who are career criminal persons, who laugh and jeer at civil society, viewing us and our group life style, of peaceful work, education and family raising. It is still CIVIL WAR and if you are going to go to war against the predators, then perhaps we should change the current rules that have evolved from a more peaceful colonial time, when compassion, understanding, addiction to rum or marijuana was tolerated and the petty crimes that were the result in a small segment of our society. Today, a much larger segment of our society the survey shows, are deliberately making war on our civilized society and we need to understand that we are in this war and need to get more serious about it.
______________________________________________


Jamaica Observer: ( newspaper )

Belmopan, Belize - (CMC) Prime Minister Dean Barrow said his administration will introduce tougher legislation to deal with crime at next Friday's sitting of Parliament after a grenade was thrown at a group of people in the old capital of St Martin on Tuesday.

Police were continuing their search for suspects and Barrow told reporters that he was thankful that the devise, which landed in front of a group of women and children, did not explode.

"Thank God the grenade did not explode. Generally, I believe that the GSU (Gang Suppression Unit) has been doing extremely well. I believe that unit has been able to bring some slight sense of reassurance to the public especially here in Belize City.

"We, in government, have committed to in fact provide to the unit all the wherewithal, all the material that it needs and we're in the process of procuring additional weaponry, additional bullet proof vests and additional vehicles," Barrow said.

Police said that one person is assisting their investigations into the incident that could have resulted in a major disaster had the grenade exploded.

Barrow said that the Government would soon be opening a building that would provide "a second chance facility in terms of people who have not had an opportunity to complete school".

"And this allows me to say that the enforcement efforts of the police and of the security forces general; while extremely critical, have to be complimented by the attempts at social amelioration. So I do want to make clear that in that context we signed the loan for $US10 million from the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) which will help with the training of young people, which will help with community involvement, which will help us to try even harder to beat back this phenomenon of urban violence."

The prime minister acknowledged that the security forces now had to deal with criminals who are showing that they have no regard for life or property.

But he sought to assure citizens that his administration would be taking stronger measures to deal with the situation.

"The point is, while we must attack the social conditions that breed this kind of mentality, we have to go at that particular element hard and it's not just with respect to the on-the- ground efforts of the GSU, it is as well to broaden and deepen the legal infrastructure so that the sort of penal catchment area can be widened," he said.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Belize-promises-tougher-laws-as-rival-gang-crime-worsens_8762125#ixzz1LaRJn04b