AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye Shooting incident in San Pedro

"However, so long as there is a profit motive well beyond the opportunity provided elsewhere in Belize, the problems will persist."

When the drugs are legalized there will no longer be a profit motive...

It has to be done wisely so Belize doesn't become a destination for druggies, or a distribution hub. That said, I think SimonB is dead-on. No profit motive for street thugs, then no more turf wars and gang formation.

SimonB, Otteralum the USA is barely getting around to sort of legalizing pot and it'll probably take years for all of the states to follow suit. There is absolutely no chance that other more harmful drugs will be legalized any time in the next decade. So, forget about the legalization of "drugs" in Belize. This is not a realistic solution to what ails our island.

Diane Campbell, no problem, we'll all just avoid the shootings when they're going on and everything will be OK.

Those who chose to continue the Gun Debate on this thread....seriously?

Reaper's points are good (except the Gun Debate bits).

Maya House and Poppie ...100% right.

Phil, zero for starting the Gun Debate here.

Me, 100% right as usual. And, as usual, no one is listening.

One stray bullet is all it will take.

Chris, you may be right. Politically, it may not have a prayer. Never said Simon's idea was practicable -- just wise and effective.

I would be interested in your ideas instead of simply poking holes in the ideas of others. Am I to understand you would be in favor of random checkpoints/sweeps and the Belize military roaming the streets as Poppie suggests? If so, forget about the occasional drug-related shooting, tourists like me will be long gone.

A larger police presence is good, and better education and organization of citizenry is even better, but random searches and uniformed military with semi-autos on Coconut as I drive-by in my golf cart is a bad idea.

I have no illusions that drugs will be legalized in my lifetime; too many people make too much money off them being illegal. It's only a small part of the overall problem anyway; disparity between the classes, poverty, drugs, religion, pollution, owned politicians...all a mess and only going to get worse worldwide.

I may be way off and not aware of my surroundings while in San Pedro, but I have never seen the police actively roaming the island looking for criminal activity. Last time i was there i was talked to by one of the newer traffic policeman. Other than this one occasion, I only see the officers standing out in front of the station watching people drive by. Do these officers get assigned a patrol area or do they just wait on the phone to ring to respond ? There just doesn't seem to be anything proactive going on. Before I get slammed I am not beating up the police. I respect the job they do and would never want to trade places.
Another thing I always notice are the young teens hanging out in the streets in to the early morning hours. Do parents not require their kids to have a curfew. Sorry I just don't see anything going on at one or two in the morning for teenagers to be out doing other than mischief.
Just my 2 cents. I just want to see things get better because I love this place !

tahunt, you are not off at all. I've owned a place on the Island for over 7 years and have spent a lot of time there. Never have seen routine "patrols". Several traffic check-points which usually nets nothing more than a person driving without a license or even better checking to see if the horn on your golf cart works...........the heck with checking to see if your taillights work....that involves a little motion. I am not putting down on the ordinary police officer.....they can only work with the tools that are given them. The solution and guidance has to come from higher up.

The Traffic Patrols you mention are not part of the Police Dept. They are San Pedro Town Board employees hired to manage the traffic only.

Thanks SP Daily for clearing that up for me...........guess I didn't learn much in 7 years

Otteralum, I've posted my ideas for the restoration of law and order on the island before. It starts with the Government of Belize actually starting to care about the island and re-investing our tax dollars back into proper policing, police pay, police accommodations, police morale. We need to make the island a plum post for our police to work. Right now being a policeman on Ambergris Caye must be a living hell.

In the meantime if the temporary solution is forcefully removing bad people and denying entry to same, so be it.

The only saving grace for all of the shootings we've seen so far in 2014 is that in most (tragically not all) cases the shooters have been bad shots. Our murder count would be a lot higher if not for that.

Taking pot shots (ha ha) at those who post "ideas" which amount to nothing more than old USA political arguments (Legalize all drugs, gun control debate, etc.) is something I reserve the right to do because they do not represent the solution to what ails Ambergris Caye. If I want to read reasoned debate on those matters I'll go to realclearpolitics.com or similar sites.