Three men, two of whom were armed with handguns, robbed five Brazilians and a driver last Tuesday night at the residential Fulton Court in Georgetown. Two hours later, two armed men robbed the supervisor of Sam’s Service Station at Anna Catherina on the West Coast.
The very next morning, Wednesday, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee cheerily attempted to assure members of the Private Sector Commission that, in spite of the “perception” that there was an increase in crime, “the big picture remains the fact that national security remains intact.”
Mr Rohee told the meeting – which was attended by senior members of the Guyana Police Force and representatives of the mining, forestry and shipping sectors – that, regardless of the ravages of armed gangs “the Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Prison Service, Guyana Police Force and the Guyana Fire Service are all up to speed to deal with any threat to the stability of the state.”
If, perhaps, Mr Rohee measures security exclusively by the impact of crime on “the stability of the state” he could have a point. If, as for ordinary citizens, security means “human security,” that is, the protection of people against threats to their lives and property, Mr Rohee is dead wrong.
The public perception that there is a surge in crime is derived from the Police Force’s daily bulletins. Head of the Police Criminal Investigation Depart-ment Seelall Persaud reported that there were 698 armed robberies in 2008 and 513 in 2009. Data are unavailable for 2010.
Commissioner of Police Mr Henry Greene has many droll notions and nostrums about the spate of armed robberies everywhere from the coastland to the hinterland. His most risible notion – referring to the annual concerts and beach pageant organised by Hits and Jams Entertainment enterprise – was that the perpetrators of armed robberies on the East Bank and East Coast “would have been trying to get money for Jamzone.”
Another Greene idea, slightly less fatuous, was that “They [the bandits] are looking for soft targets… these guys are looking for people who are soft targets… soft targets are people like greens vendors who go home not believing anybody would follow them.”
Another Greene theory was that the biggest challenge facing the Police Force concerned the high price of gold. Mr Greene declared his belief that, once people go to work in the hinterland, they would earn more than they would on the coastland. That is the reason, he thought, that “some criminal elements end up in there.” Yet another Greene revelation, based on his belief that “most robberies are committed with guns,” was that “there had also been an increase in the rental of illegal guns, most of which were used by bandits.”
Mr Greene has many conjectures but, nevertheless, the force he commands seems to be clueless about formulating a plan to stanch the influx of illegal firearms. The force, equally, is perplexed about how to identify and counter the mushrooming of numerous amateur gangs. It is public knowledge that the Police Force is 20 per cent under strength. Its weakest division – embracing the huge hinterland – is both a major source of gun-running and the scene of many armed robberies. Yet the administration has done nothing to deal with the force’s human resource deficiency and to reorganise the command and management of the hinterland.
Mr Rohee must wake up to the realisation that three armed robberies every week are a reality, not a perception. As long as robberies continue at this rate, “the big picture” is that human security on the coastland and the hinterland cannot be “intact.”
