Dear Editor,
I am concerned that lots has been going on in our country over the past years and the only pictures that are normally published are those of the dead. Why publish the dead? The ones that committed the crimes are still here living among us. We should publish these pictures in the media so people would be aware of them. It is only if a criminal committed more than one murder that his picture would be published, like ‘Skinny’ and ‘Fineman.’ The public needs to know who the criminals are. A person can commit a crime in Georgetown and escape to Corentyne and live a normal life, and nobody would know.
Yours faithfully,
Jerry McKenzie
Editor’s note
The police issue bulletins bearing the image of persons who are wanted in relation to major crimes, and these generally appear in the media. In addition, the media routinely publish the photos of those charged with various offences at the time they appear in court. Stabroek News does not usually carry photos of persons alleged to have committed offences before they are actually charged, in case they are not in fact charged. After an accused has served time for the commission of an offence, it would be an infringement of their human rights to publish their photo in a context where it was simply intended to draw attention to their criminal record, although the police have been issuing photos of deportees who were convicted of offences elsewhere.
