Dear Editor,
Not so long ago I wrote a letter based on one I had seen written by Barrington Braithwaite on how Michael Jules aka ‘Porridge Man’ was executed by ranks of the Guyana Police Force. In that letter, like others before, I criticised the bizarre, lawless and unprofessional modus operandi of the police. The regular allegations made against the police with various indictments and immoral conduct brings the ‘Porridge Man’ scenario back to the fore, especially two recent incidents, one of which is now in court, and the other which involved secondary school boys (11-13 years old) who according to reports were sexually molested while in the ‘care’ of police at the Wismar Police Station.
Could Barrington Braithwaite be wrong when he said that there has not been any substantial change for the better in the GPF from 1990 to now, and that “the system had captured troubled, unbalanced personalities and created soulless mass murders out of them”? But bad as the state of the GPF is, according to the report those in charge at the welfare department who wanted to teach the boys a lesson for whatever misconduct they had allegedly committed, should also have been keeping in contact with the police station.
Come on! We are talking about 11-13 years old who were in their care first before they were handed over to the police. In any event, what on earth would have warranted those boys being kept at the station from 11 am until after 8pm? What sort of investigation were they conducting?
Further, what of the superior officer who was in charge, was he out for the entire day? Didn’t those minors sitting there for some 8-9 hours catch the attention of other senior officers to make them curious and ask questions, or did they all turn a blind eye and leave it all to this particular individual? Just what sort of characters are our police force comprised of. Anyone who had the experience of waiting at any police station can say without fear of correction just what those boys were subjected to for all those hours.
Why do we talk so much about the rights of the child when scant respect is paid to those laws by those who are supposed to enforce them? Children should not be held for hours in the same place with adult offenders and hardened criminals.
There are some who theorized that by allowing kids to have the experience of what it is to be locked up could serve as a deterrent from criminal acts – I wonder.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
