Page 66 - Gilbert & Me_Neat

I check the borrowed phone. When I went to bed last night it was fully charged. This morning it
was down to sixty eight percent, so I plugged it in and over the last two hours it’s charged up to
seventy seven percent. I can wait until its closer to full charge before heading to franks to hook
up to his wifi and contacting the Boss.

Another coffee is required.

I also reflect on some sad news from yesterday, which reflects badly on Belize – if you’re
looking at the country from the outside – but it isn’t really all that surprising to me. Yesterday a
young man – a member of the LGBTQ community – died. He was beaten and suffered massive
internal organ failure according to the coroner. But, his family are accusing the police of his
death.

Now that, in itself, isn’t unusual – the police can be and have been found guilty of using
unnecessary force when detaining people on a number of occasions, but, what’s unusual here is
that the family are claiming this while ignoring the fact that the guy was breaking the law, and
but for the fact that he was breaking curfew, he would never have come into contact with the
police. Okay, okay, I know that doesn’t justify police brutality, but, that is just an accusation –
nothing has been proven and the man initially claimed when, he himself made a complaint about
being beaten, that it was by some unknown person.

What’s particular confusing about this case is that the deceased man went onto social media to
make the complaint about being beaten up, without mentioning the police, although he did say
that the police called him “Princess” and generally disrespected his alternative lifestyle. Readers
should note that members of the LGBTQ community here in Belize are generally treated with
distain, homophobia and bullied here. This country hasn’t yet accepted that people have a right
to live their lives how they wish and receive protection like everybody else, under the law. The
churches have such a stranglehold on the State (regardless of what politicians will tell you) that
homosexuality was only recently taken off the statue books as being illegal, so the country at
large, including the police force, still treat them as inhuman and subject to bullying and hate
crimes. The religious hypocrisy, considering the state of the Roman Catholic church with regard
to homosexuality and paedophilia, is breathtaking in the extreme.

Anyway, it was only when the man went to the KHMH hospital and was refused treatment
(because the hospital workers were concerned about his lack of face mask), that his family then
claimed it was the police who beat him up.

I’m struggling to be sympathetic. On the one hand, being beaten up, by anyone, is unacceptable
and the culprit(s) have to be punished. Agreed. On the other hand, he broke the law. He was out
after curfew and there can be no excuse for that. If he went out because he was feeling bad
following the beating, then he would have been displaying signs of distress, and somebody
should have helped him. That doesn’t appear to have been the situation though, at least not in the
report on local news, so, it’s not clear why he was out at that time or where he was going.
Anyway, an investigation should reveal the truth, justice is demanded.