He has made a career out of covering gangs and that’s what brought
British journalist Ross Kemp to Belize earlier this year. He shot a documentary
on gangs in Belize which aired yesterday and it has stirred a hornet’s
nest of controversy. And that is mainly because according to Ross Kemp, Belize
is one of the most dangerous places to live with a flood of guns and explosives
on the streets and a per capita murder rate higher than the United States. But
is it sensationalism or a dose of reality? We’ll let you judge.
Ross Kemp from Documentary: “It is the
sixth likeliest place in the planet for someone to die from a gunshot wound…Belize
is a city on the verge of anarchy.”
And Ross Kemp went head first into the underbelly of the so-called city ‘on
the verge of anarchy’ – riding shotgun with police officers.
Police Officer: ‘This is one of the real active
neighbourhoods involved in a lot of shootings.’
Ross Kemp: ‘What kind of guns are these people using?’
Police Officer: ‘AK47s, AR15s, M16s, 9mm, explosives.’
Ross Kemp: ‘There doesn’t seem to be any area that
hasn’t got a gang.’
Police Officer: ‘That’s true, that’s
the harsh reality behind it.’
Ross Kemp: ‘I’ve never been to anywhere like that.’
He also got unprecedented access as he went into the hood for candid conversations 
with real life gangsters.
Gangster #1: ‘We lost 13 homeboys in less
than two years. All of them were from gun and I ain’t scared. If they
take one, I will kill two. If they kill two of mine I am going to take three.
My life ain’t a gun but if you try to take me I will take you. I was born
on this block and I will die on this block. To tell you the truth, other youths
in the world I wouldn’t want them to become like this. I know the way
the world is running and I know how we are going in my country but come on man,
you can’t get no sensible jobs, our minimum wage is a little bit of money.
How can we live? I as a ghetto youth right now would want to get out of this
game but I can’t. Who will I turn to?’
Ross Kemp: ‘Why does George Street got such a reputation?’
Jason Brown: ‘We have witnesses who we kill.
If you are a witness, I could come twelve o’clock in the afternoon and
shot this guy in the middle of his forehead and you are a witness.’
Ross Kemp: ‘I wouldn’t say anything.’
Jason Brown: ‘You better not.’
Ross Kemp even got his hand on this grenade – which is disturbingly similar,
in fact we’d say identical to the one hurled into the crowd on carnival 
day, except that in this case electric tape covered the markings.
Ross Kemp: ‘In all my travels around the world, I have
never seen a gang with this kind of hardware.’
It is dramatic but Douglas Hyde who worked with Ross Kemp on the documentary
says some facts were misstated and exaggerated.
Douglas Hyde, Facilitated Ross Kemp
“The documentary also was very sensationalized in terms of looking
at things on a larger basis and not have reached to that level yet that the
documentary is showing.”
Keith Swift,
So you think it was over sensationalized?
Douglas Hyde,
“Yes. He spoke about Belize being one of the most dangerous places
on the planet and then it recognizes certain people as leaders of gangs when
I have been around with some of these guys who have never stated that they are
leaders of no gangs. Some of them literally stated that they are involved but
not at a leadership level and so for me it was using the wrong words and placing
things out of context which I am not agreeing with none at all and I want to
make that clear.”
Still Hyde says Ross Kemp may have given Belize a much needed wake up call.
Douglas Hyde,
“Yes this is our Belize, this is what we are looking at right now,
the concern in the streets with our gangs. But also I am hurt because the truth,
that is basically the truth – that our gangs are out there. We’ve
been hiding it, we’ve been placing the issues in the back burner for years
and here comes a guy out of another country showing us that these are major
concerns we have here with our gangs. So those are my mixed feelings, that I
am happy that the realities are shown but upset that this is Belize, this is
what we have been turned into.”
Ross Kemp has done similar documentaries on gangs in numerous other
countries in the region including Salvador and Jamaica. Click
here to view the full documentary.
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