And while the UDP didn't touch on the customs hustle in their press conference, they did ask once again, "who teef Budna?" Except, as the chairlady Sheena Pitts put it, that question has been answered - Joseph Budna was kidnapped by the state utilizing the police department.
She linked the state's weaponization of the police department in this way to the police detaining Brian "Yellowman" Audinett last Wednesday, before the UDP's protest.
Sheena Pitts, Chairlady, UDP
"It didn't end there. We started to protest and the executive again using the police department as if though it is its lynch-man and had the police discretion to determine who gets to protest and when. Unfettered discretion to determine on this occasion, yes I'll give you the permit, but on the next occasion when conveniently because of the politics of the day, I will decide you didn't have the time in there, you didn't have the date in there. You have the police exercise unfettered discretion to say oh you don't qualify for a permit today. You think it's done there? Look at what happened on the morning of our last protest. While gathering placards to take out to our point of protest, Brian "Yellowman" Audinett was arrested and on the paper given to him that the state uses so you know what you're in there for, they wrote BMOG, that's an acronym, words that stand for being a member of a gang. Now I have the fortune advantage of saying I know Yellowman all my life and I will not put my head on a block and get it chopped off but I can say with absolute certainty at no time Yellowman has never been a member of a gang."
"It can never be that no executive power is able to use the police department and dispatch it against the Belizean citizens."
"And Belizeans this is not "it should blow over like a breeze." This is a matter of your fundamental rights and freedoms. It can never blow over."
