With the holiday season approaching, the police have stepped up their campaign against the possession and sale of squibs, while promising “special arrangements” to raid points of sale.
The growing concern over squibs and other types of pyrotechnics made headlines during the recent Diwali celebrations, when persons gathered in Alexander Village and unleashed a barrage of terror, scaring residents and causing damage to the community’s Mandir. Citizens fear a similar occurrence during the upcoming Christmas season and are calling on the Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to put measures in place.
The police have been warning citizens about the illegality of firecrackers for years but with little success.
When Stabroek News asked acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene about plans to deal with the situation, he said, “We are working on that. We have arrested some people already.”
According to Greene, ranks are swooping down on businesses and other places but are coming up empty-handed. “We have been searching. We have been checking all the different business places and so on but people are hiding it. It is not being shown publicly,” he stressed.
However, he said that there are suspicions that the firecrackers are entering Guyana through the borders at Suriname and Venezuela. Asked if there are plans to place ranks at some of these locations, he simply pointed to the fact that the borders are porous.
While announcing the Christmas policing plan for the city last week, Commander Leroy Brumell announced that special arrangements are in place to raid markets and other places that are selling squibs. But he did not elaborate on what those arrangements are. Though firecrackers are illegal, they are still smuggled into the country and are openly sold in the markets and along streets in central Georgetown.
Stabroek News understands that the police have moved their campaign to Berbice, where a number of searches were conducted.
Meanwhile, the 19 persons who were arrested for throwing squibs in the village on the night of October 28 have yet to be charged, despite a promise by police that they would be taken to court.
But, after contacting Brumell, Greene told this newspaper on Friday that ten of those persons “were likely” to go to court yesterday. However, there was no sign of any of them at the George-town Magistrate’s Court.
The police said ranks on duty observed a number of squibs being set off at various areas within Alexander Village. They added that there was a crowd of approximately 3,000 persons on the roadways, who were there to witness the event, including the lighting up of the Mandir and other buildings. The persons arrested were placed on station bail and were to be charged. A number of squibs were also seized by the ranks.
Responding to public outcry over firecrackers during the observance of Diwali, President Bharrat Jagdeo recently called on the judiciary to view the issue more seriously and to hand down the maximum penalty in cases where people are found guilty.
He said that firecrackers are a nuisance and also pointed out that they are dangerous. However, he noted that many people never viewed them that way until they were directly affected.
