But, before he left, we also asked Gayle about the "Public Emergency Areas" which the Ministry of National Security plans to declare in certain - still unspecified - crime ridden areas of Belize City.
This draws a parallel to Jamaica where a state of emergency has been declared in two crime ridden provinces since January - using legal provisions similar to the ones they plan to use in Belize.
We asked Gayle whether this is an effective means of containing gang warfare:
Dr. Herbert Gayle, Violence Anthropologist
"Even as the state is creating its suppression frame, we call that holding. If something is running too fast, something has to stop it from running, from escalating. So suppression is necessary, but you can't hold something forever, you have to let go at some point. It means that the state has to present to the citizenry that we have a frame at work which is to sort out your education. Ensuring that all males between 6 and 18 years old have full access to education and are in school. That means bearing in mind that children can't be poor, it is their families that must be addressed starting with their mothers and using their fathers as a shield or support system to the mother and the rest of the family. If that is not done, next year this time you're going to have another state of emergency and the results will be hold and wait. The state holds, the gangs wait. When the state gets tired and let's go, the gangs move in with a new adaptation and it gets worse. It creates a spiral of murders and violence that gets worse. The state must combine its suppression with a massive sweep of social work. Any unit that is responsible like the ministry of youth and these units, responsible for the social work, must be working as one force not little bickering's I've been picking up since I am back where everybody have a little agenda working. All of that has to be brought together into one force including neighborhoods, families, working as the state has their holding session. This holding session means people will have a chance to work but they must work. They can't wait for the holding session to continue."
In Jamaica, the emergency powers allow law enforcement to to search, curtail operating hours of businesses, and to detain persons without a warrant. In addition all persons using roads leading in and out of the special areas are subject to search.
The stipulations or locations for the Belize emergency areas have not been announced yet.
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