DPM Cordel Does Not Agree with State of Emergency

Cordel Hyde

A state of emergency came into effect on Saturday morning in a portion of south side Belize City.  The S.O.E. is in the wake of numerous incidents of gun violence amongst feuding gangs in the Lake Independence area, which is the division of Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde. During an interview with the media today, Minister Hyde said that he does not support the state of emergency because it encourages stigma. Here’s how he explains. 

Cordel Hyde, Area Representative, Lake Independence

“On principle I don’t like state of emergencies and for practical purposes I don’t either because the truth of the matter is you’re isolating the very people you need to cooperate with the police to curb crime. It is a broad sweep, a kind of big roundup of all and sundry including innocent people because the truth of the matter is sixty seventy people that you roundup are not going to go together to kill anyone, to commit any crime. So you are really taking up innocence in that process too; innocent people are being rounded up also within those fifty sixty people you are dealing with. So can you imagine how their families feel, their children feel, their friends, the community? They are really pissed; you are isolating them. In Lake I, it is a difficult process for us because not everyone commits crime, not everyone is involved in that. And every time you do a state of emergency in our communities, you are really stigmatising us, you are really stereotyping our people. And if you do that, who’s gonna want to come and invest, who’s gonna want to come live there, who’s gonna want to engage with our communities. So we really have to think long and hard before we go to that level. That has to be an absolutely last resort. You can’t just willy nilly decide okay we tired of this, these guys are not listening and we have to have a state of emergency. It has to be a last resort.”