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May 27, 2011

Viewers mixed review about scope of G.S.U. power

Turning to the question of the week; we asked do you think that the scope of jurisdiction of the Gang Suppression Unit should be extended beyond the gangs and the city limits. That question garnered mix responses from our viewers with fifty-eight percent saying yes and forty-two percent saying no. One of the persons who agree that the GSU should operate countrywide commented that; “If gangs exist outside the city—and we know they do—the GSU should have every right to go to any part of the country where they are needed.” Meanwhile some viewers feel that the old capital has the most need for the unit. One person said, “Belize City is where the majority of gang activities take place, if we deploy them to other parts of the country, who will protect the city?”


Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

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7 Responses for “Viewers mixed review about scope of G.S.U. power”

  1. Stephen says:

    Those people know what they are doing, all the guns and ammo coming from out district especially from the Cayo District and those that have ties in Melchior know what going on. Mike know what he is doing and I believe that the police know that he is getting bad things into this country. We have a Belize Police Department that work for this entire country so they are welcome on my part to go any were in Belize and enforce the Law. There was one unit that was doing a great job and they shut it down as some big people start to get bus. Look at the Serious Crimes Team and remember who all get touch by them, just to mention down south and everyone forget Big Falls and bins of marijuana now a senator. The Governor General should be in charge of that unit and we will see who all be going to jail as for now only the small people getting caught. We need to start from the top where there is finance and cut it off.

  2. Dan Armeneau says:

    If you’re going to have these GSU thugs marauding the country, acting with arrogance and impunity then common street gangs are no longer the problem. You people now have a REAL problem. A GOVERNMENT of BELIZE SANCTIONED AND FINANCED GANG with a poorly defined mandate and a somewhat sketchy jurisdiction.

    Democracy requires a few fundamentals, if for no other reason than the integrity of the democratic process. Founders of the democratic process realized early on that the legislative, judicial, and law enforcement needed to be cooperative but separate entities in order to avoid having democracy degrade into common dictatorship or anarchy. This is as basic as it gets.

    Democracy is in certain jeopardy when you have the head of a “allegedly” elite law enforcement unit answering to no one but the Prime Minister (No checks and balances between “Law Enforcement” and “Lawmakers”) and this same thug is married to the Director of Public Prosecutions (“Law Enforcement” in bed with the “Judiciary”). This will never be good for Belizeans. There is no way it ever could.

    WAKE UP BELIZEANS! If these GSU thugs are given more impunity to act above the law then you have flushed 2000 years of the development of the democratic process down the toilet.

    Of course I can understand the concerns of Belizeans as the country reels from news of murder rates out of control and street gangs controlling the neighbourhoods. Those are very real concerns but sanctioning a Government gang to control street gangs is both and a dangerous and reckless way to address a very real problem. The opportunity for abuse is simply too great and the chance of making any kind of a real difference so remote that I would question the motives of those who put these GSU thugs together as a unit in the first place.

    People of Belize, please think this through. Expanding the scope and jurisdiction of these Government sanctioned thugs is nothing short of foolhardy. Put your UDP/PUP differences aside this one time and demand that GSU be thoroughly investigated and ultimately disbanded.

    I live right in the heart of Canada’s oil industry and I’ll tell each and everyone of you right now that there is more than enough oil coming out of Belizean soil each and every day to finance an education system the envy of any in the world. There’s also enough oil to make each and every Belizean a millionaire. I am not exaggerating one little bit. I know this from first hand experience.

    Belizeans, please understand that proper financing of education and ultimately job creation is a much better way of addressing the criminal menace plaguing the country. Expanding the mandate and jurisdiction of Government sanctioned thugs is MOST CERTAINLY NOT.

    Give this some serious discussion and thought people!

  3. Drama says:

    Are they not the police are they not entitled to protect the citizens of the country of belize well then….

  4. EMS says:

    This is food for thought!! If all or any of the above are facts, then we can only discern that we have the most incompetent PM and a cabinet of idiotic buffoons running our country, with a cockeyed, truncated myopic vision and not even a strategic plan with the best interest of the populace at heart.

  5. Dan Armeneau says:

    It’s quite evident the GSU is already operating beyond it’s jurisdiction. I sadly fear this is only the thin edge of the wedge. And isn’t the mandate of the GSU, “gang suppression”?

    It would, for all intents and purposes, appear that the GSU has unilaterally decided to expand the scope of their mandate as well. Who exactly rubber stamps these arbitrary decisions? Who does the GSU answer to? Maybe someone in the Prime Minister’s Office would care to comment on how or why or by what precedent or mechanism in a democracy this Gang Suppression Unit has the ability to operate with such apparent impunity?

    Fair question wouldn’t you say? A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office should be forthcoming now that the GSU has expanded their jurisdiction and the scope of their mandate. It would be the honourable thing to do. Don’t you think, Mr. Prime Minister, that the people of Belize have a right to know by what rules this dangerous experiment in law enforcement is operating? If in fact it’s operating under any rules at all! Perhaps clarification is in order.

    While we’re at it Mr. Prime Minister, maybe an explanation as to how you intend to avoid the very real risk of potential abuse by having the head of your Gang Suppression Unit intimately related to the Director of Public Prosecutions would be in order? In the defence of democracy these are most certainly questions begging for an answer.

    And how about a summary, Mr. Prime Minister on how the Government of Belize intends to address any human rights violations that are almost a certainty when all the ingredients necessary are woven into the very fabric of the Gang Suppression Unit? Would the Prime Minister’s Office care to make a statement that they have the initiative to respect the human rights of innocent women and children caught up in dealings with the Gang Suppression Unit? Even a statement regarding any initiatives in respect to the basic human rights of criminals wouldn’t be such a bad idea as well.

    I have grave concerns, Mr. Prime Minister that the People of Belize are the ones who’ll suffer by your dangerous experiment with the GSU. Dangerous experiments like these have no place in a modern democracy that respects even the most basic of human rights.

    So Mr. Prime Minister, I challenge you to take up the gauntlet and explain your Gang Suppression Unit to the People of Belize or let your silence reveal the true nature of your plans for it. I’m quite confident in saying that there is someone in your Government that will read about this challenge I have raised and bring it to your attention. Do what’s right by the People of Belize and provide some honest answers!

    Don’t let your silence speak for you Mr. Prime Minister. Demonstrate that you respect the People of Belize.

  6. Moron Country says:

    This whole country need to burn, like it is now, but with hot lava or a meteorite, all of us need to perish and cleanse this earth, man, woman, child, animal, trees, rocks, every goddarn thing, we do not deserve this planet and in Belize we have too much useless, waste of humans who are much better to society in being fertilizer. GSU should be assiged to go in to south side Belize $#!%%& and gun down every thing that walks in there, that would be a good start, show the criminals what a real blood bath looks like. This small piece of $#!% city, where ever criminal is known and we cant stop this $#!%? you kidding me? kill every criminal that is known and then kill all the top level scum; oh wait, that would mean have of the elites in Belize would be snipped as well. Oh well, kill their kids, and wives, sweethearts whatever, in front of them, then let them live a few more weeks, months, whatever and then skin them and post the video on youtube and give channel 5, 7, love, whatever, a copy to show the public. Lets get crazy people, stop messing around, lets just go out shooting, blup blup. Or lets use south side BZ $#%%& to test a nuke, am sure USA would pay us big money for this.

  7. Moron Country says:

    Also, Evan X, why don’t you stop coming up with clever analogies and give some damn solutions, I love your writings, but if you have another orgasm about UBAD am gonna go kick you in the nuts. We get it already for christ sakes, colonialism this, your 70s experience – that, blah blah blah, you should run for PM, or are you too chicken crap? you seem to have it all figured out, but you said it yourself you were cut out for politics. You say you care about the people, yet you take the banks blood advertising money to post bank foreclosures on Belizeans’ home and businesses; if you cared that much you should boycott this.

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