So, with all those wanted men - who face at least one month of lockdown based on a detention order - the PUP has now fully embraced what was an effective UDP crime suppression tactic.
And while it may have been effective in keeping numbers down - a state of emergency is considered to be a very rough tool of law enforcement - because it basically suspends citizens' rights - most fundamentally, their right to go before a judge.
But, in the face of rising crime, the PUP had no choice. Still, like all those acrobats we've featured one the news before - those who talk like this and act like that - we have to catalogue their reversal in positions - just for the record. Jules Vasquez has the story:
posted (November 25, 2020)
Hon. Kareem, Minister of Police
"But it's not our immediate knee jerk reaction to go to a state of emergency."
Not the immediate reaction, but the eventual one - after a 2021 that has seen a sharp increase in violent crime in the city.
So, now that we have the first PUP southside state of emergency and the Briceno administration's caving in to a crime spike - it's time to review the record - for all the bad stuff they said about these suthside states of emergency when the UDP used to do it.
In 2018, PM John Briceno said a southside SOE is a sign of failure in the face of crime:
posted (September 5, 2018)
Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"The fact that the government has taken the drastic step to declare a state of public emergency on the South Side of Belize City is a clear admission of their inability to handle the crime situation. Indeed, the Acting Commissioner stated in this morning's press conference that the situation is getting out of control; no sir, the situation is out of control. Locking up gang members will not do anything to address the poverty and inequality on the South Side of Belize City."
And while the Briceno administration will surely add this price tag to the UDP's bill of political liabilities -in March of 2018 - Briceno saw investment and not abandonment as his answer to the Southside's woes:
posted (March 20, 2018)
Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"The PUP proposes that instead of treating the south side like of Belize City like a war zone and declaring it a state of emergency, government should declare the south side of Belize city a special development zone where financial and human capital will immediately be made available to transform the lives and environment of the citizens."
But, instead of transformation - we get the same old solution - boots swarming the southside - effective for short term suppression - but not a real solution.
Before he was CEO in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Kevin Arthurs spoke as Vice President of the Human rights commission of Belize and said a Southside State of Emergency is a date knell for the state:
posted (September 6, 2018)
Kevin Arthur - VP, HRCB
"I know everybody including myself and members of the board want to see crime stopped - but I don't think we should bite into the placebo that this extreme mechanism will cause to stop. If we buy into that snake skin oil then we're over as a state."
But far from over, for the PUP, they are just beginning their term - and it's left to be seen if they will have have to invoke multiple Southside SOE's like the UDP did - when they locked up scores of suspected gang affiliates for as much as three months without facing a judge.
