And that sort of round criticism has also been leveled at the government in the wake of last weekend's mass shooting in Hopkins Village.
It was a terrible shooting, yes, killing 2 and injuring 8. But because it happened in tiny, peaceful Hopkins, it seems so much bigger - like an assault on an entire way of life, an entire state of being.
And this act of outrageous lawless happened under the PUP - who - when they took over from the UDP - promised to bring crime under control.
They haven't and the complexity of the crime problem has no doubt, been a sobering lesson for the Briceno administration.
Today the Prime Minister said Hopkins left him initially speechless:
Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"I don't think I could really find adequate words to express just the horror of what happened in Hopkins. It is something that's so un-Belizean. It's something that is just in our minds that just doesn't happen here. But maybe it could be, you know, the advent of the international media for watching international TV is starting to change the mindset of some of our young people. I've always said I feel very strongly that we have to go very hard at crime. We have to go hard at the criminals. And it seems that the police moved very quickly. They managed to get the person who was driving the getaway car, and it seems, based on the evidence, that they managed to find the three persons that committed the crime, it seems. I want to make sure that we get the best prosecutors to go after them, and if it's left up to me, they should not see the light of day. They should be locked up for the rest of their lives. And to point out to other criminals that we will go after them. We, as it is right now, we are using more and more technology within the police department. We're starting to work on putting up more cameras. We have a loan with CABEI that will allow us to put more cameras in the hotspots, especially in Belize City. We're getting body cameras for the police, also - officers so when you're out there, A, that they can't misbehave and B, if people are misbehaving, that we can capture that. We are hiring a few more police officers and ensuring that these police officers are capable, that they are trainable, and that can be able to do the work. But that is only one part of the equation. The other part is the social aspect of it that there seems, especially with some of our young people, a total breakdown of the social fabric and the way that they think and they behave. And that is why we are saying that we have to invest in education. As it is right now, we're starting the program there on the south side of Belize City. It's a small geographic area, but [it's] where we have some of the most challenging social issues to ensure that these kids can stay in school."
