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THINK ABOUT IT Alan Dershowitz, one of America’s most respected defense attorneys, has written his considered views of the justice system based on his many years of experience in the U.S.A. Alan says that he has come across a series of “rules” which govern the justice game in the U.S.A. Below he list some of the key “rules”. RULE 1: Almost all criminal defendants are in fact, guilty. RULE 2: All criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges understand and believe Rule 1. RULE 3: It is easier to convict guilty defendants by violating the Constitution than by complying with it, and in some cases it is impossible to convict guilty defendants without violating the Constitution. RULE 4: Almost all police lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict guilty defendants. RULE 5: All prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys are aware of rule 4. RULE 6: Many prosecutors implicitly encourage the police to lie about whether they violated the Constitution in order to convict guilty defendants. RULE 7: All judges are aware of rule 6. RULE 8: Most trial judges pretend to believe police officers who they know are lying. RULE 9: All appellate judges are aware of rule 8, yet many pretend to believe the trial judges who pretend to believe the lying police officers. RULE 10: Most judges disbelieve defendants about whether their Constitutional rights have been violated, even if they are telling the truth. RULE 11: Most judges and prosecutors would not knowingly convict a defendant who they believe to be innocent. RULE 12: Rule 11 does not apply to members of organized crime, drug dealers, career criminals, or potential informers. RULE13: Nobody really wants justice. STEVEN BUCKLEY Three years ago a Police shot Steven Buckley through the windshield of a vehicle. There were several witnesses. Buckley was a passenger returning from his job in his boss’s vehicle. The shooting was an error by a Police working the new brutal anti-crime campaign. Buckley has four young children. He has no criminal record and is not a trouble maker. The trial of the shooting Police has just reached the Supreme Court and should soon start. In the meantime Buckley is unable to work, is incapacitated, can barely talk and is forced to beg to feed and clothe his children. This case is just one of many which highlights how uncaring and cold hearted is the government. The Police are employees of the government. When the Police wrongly injures a citizen the government should do the right thing and shoulder the responsibilities. The government is wasting millions of dollars, paying private family lawyers to go to court in useless endless litigation that are of no reliance to the people of Belize, and which they lose anyhow. But that same government refuses to
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THE BELIZE TIMES
send some groceries, some school fees money for an innocent hardworking father who they have injured. Mr. Buckley this week took to the media to once again highlight his plight. No one called in to offer help. We know many hearts have been shocked to see a whole family suffering. Our people want to help – their hearts are willing but their pockets are weak. NELSON MANDELA Nelson Mandela and his friend Fidel Castro are the greatest living heroes in our present time. Both are well on in years and walk closer to the grave. Nelson Mandela is very ill. He will soon be gone. We miss him already. Nelson Mandela was the symbol of the fight against naked racism in our time. White people in the nation of South Africa have ruled over millions of black people with an iron fist. This was happening not in far gone days, but in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. Although most African nations had successfully fought for their independence against various white European countries that had conquered and colonized them, South Africa was unique. The white had gotten their independence but kept their evil system of control over millions of blacks. They called it Apartheid. The black South Africans had formed a movement to fight against their brutal oppression. That movement – The African National Congress later felt it had no choice but to resort to violence. Nelson Mandela, a young black African joined the A.N.C. and became their articulate spokesman and champion. He publicly agreed that force would have to be used to get rid of the racist government. In those times the U.S.A. and Britain supported the racist South African Government. They themselves had a long history of racism against black people in their own country, much so against black people in other countries. Nelson Mandela like so many other thousands of innocent black men, women and children was thrown in jail. He spent 27 years of his life behind bars. He became the great international symbol of the struggle to end racism in South Africa. In the end, Mandela had to be freed and the racist government collapsed. He became the new President. He never victimized the racist people who destroyed his life and killed and tortured so many black Africans. He did not take away any land or farms from the evil people. He preached reconciliation and forgiveness. And he practiced it. He is the most extraordinary leader we have seen in our time. He did visit Fidel Castro to personally thank him and the Cuban people for all the help and support Cuba gave to fighting the Apartheid government and its foreign allies. The University of Belize, which has manifested a failure to promote panel discussions on important topics, should consider hosting a forum on the great Nelson Mandela. Or better still, Galen University could do it on their TV programs. And why is Assad Shoman not the President of the University of Belize?
LOOK MAYOR, NO DRAINS Belize City has over 540 streets. Can’t say how many alleys. Maybe a hundred or two. Belize City is in the hurricane season 2013. God be praised that we have not had a major hurricane since 1962. Should a hurricane pass through the city all of Minister Boots’ plycem houses will be gone with the wind. Our grandparents built their wooden houses on stilts, strong wooden posts. As concrete replaces wood, the new generation builds their bungalows flat on the ground. Belize City is below sea level. It suffers from being low-lying. This is why raising our streets and filling our yards is important. The Belize City Council and its ambitious Mayor have borrowed twenty million dollars to pave one hundred streets. Incredible as it may sound, not a single drain is being put in. Even as the first month of the hurricane season is completed, five more to go, hundreds if not thousands of drains are seen clogged up and overgrown with grass and muck. Incredible. B.E.L. The Belize Electricity Limited has collected a total revenue in 2012 of 193 million dollars. It spent every single dollar it collected and then some. It announced at its general meeting that it is broke. It sent 164 million dollars to Mexico for power we buy from them. It spent 30 million dollars to repay monies. What awesome waste and mismanagement. All the millions of dollars sucked out of the economy from the pockets of the poor to the overtaxed business people – gone, gone to Mexico. Is this what B.E.L. is sucking our millions of dollars for? Is it not time to seriously look at how solar power can reduce the cost to a poor struggling people? ROY GILL Roy Stanley Gill is the proprietor of the popular pharmacy on Freetown Road known as Alpha Drug Store. Mr. Gill is a highly trained and qualified pharmacist with many years of experience in the medical and pharmaceutical industry. He is the oldest child or Roy Gill Sr. and Evadne Gill nee Eusey. He was on born on Wagner Lane and educated at St. Michael’s College. Roy Gill as well as his brother Stephen Gill, a public officer at the MET Department are the people whom the Bible describe as the salt of the Earth. They are the good people. No malice, no hatred in their hearts. They go out of their way to help others. The playboy of the family is Andrew Gill of New York. Roy Gill recently celebrated his sixtieth birthday or was it fifty five, with family and friends at a surprise party organized by his wife Diana. Minister of Sports, Herman Longsworth, who is family was among the guests who were given a treat with several stories of legendary Wagner Lane personalities like Alejandro Mariano Castellano, Choocho, Rhodas, Seven-up, Ordonez, Gilly King, Doctor No, Freddy
2013
Punk, Cholong and many others. Many happy returns Stanley. RAY FULLER Ray Fuller was considered one of the brightest Permanent Secretaries in the Belize government service prior to independence. He was the youngest Permanent Secretary in his time. His brother, Ernest E.N.D Fuller also became a Permanent Secretary. Ray also became the first manager of the newly formed Development Finance Corporation. He had been one of a new breed of Permanent Secretaries who were university trained. He also did an extensive tour in Trinidad, heading one of their quasi-government business. Ray Fuller was always an affable and approachable person and was well liked by younger public officers. In the late 1970’s he was elected President of the Cycling Association and oversaw many improvements in that sport, including the first Miss Cycling beauty contests and collaboration between horse-racing and track racing as joint programs at the National Stadium. He increased the number of prizes for the Cross Country riders and obtained sponsorship from the business community for many cyclists. He got Ministry of Works to do major improvements to the highway. Ray Fuller has been living in Burrell Boom with his wife Judith Reid Fuller for sometime and has battled a stroke. But he is still the jovial, brilliant mind that everyone was endeared to him for. Gratitude is due for all the good things you did for Belize Mr Ray. B.T.L. B.T.L has been ripping off Belizeans with their high telephone and text and internet rates for sometime now, and getting away with it. A recent report comparing B.T.L., known scornfully as Barrow’s Telemedia, with other Caribbean telecommunication company has B.T.L. rates among some of the highest. Shame! Shameful! PUBLIC OFFICERS Public officers, who used to be known as Civil Servants have been among those in Belize on fixed salaries who are in dire need of a salaries increase. These employees of the state are the ones who do all the work and in these hard economic times, keep the government service going. Politicians/Ministers get all the pay but the civil servants do all the work. If Public Officers decide to strike the country would come to a stand still. The wages and salaries paid to Public Officers are way behind the cost of living. Like teachers, nurses, Police and B.D.F these workers deserve an increase in their pay. 13 BABIES DIE-NO ONE AT FAULT 13 babies died at KHMH and no one is responsible. A bogus press conference on Wednesday provided little answers or no responsibilities on any of the arrogant big shots. And from where did the government find those two strange characters named Dr Allen and Dr. Longs-worth.