Dear Editors,
I had to look twice at the headline which proclaimed that the police were “warning” gangs to behave, to convince myself that such a statement was actually made. It is the most incredible statement in the past decade to come out of the Guyana Police Force on its crime-fighting strategy and tactics, and reinforces the perception that the behaviour of a few presumptuous criminals is making the force look inept and out of its depth.
People are being killed anywhere and at any time with high-powered and illegal weapons, because some believe that the justice system is either not applicable to them as they subscribe to a different and ‘higher’ order, or it is so rickety that it will never be able to catch and hold them.
With all the sums boasted about yearly in Parliament as having being spent on intelligence gathering, weaponry, vehicles, and personnel, a few persons in the last few weeks have demonstrated that they really run things.
Murders, robberies and gun-crimes continue daily with impunity whilst the files of old murders like those of the Lindo Creek eight, Ricky Jainarine, and countless others, grow heavier with dust. The police should stop issuing puerile warnings and act!
I will not miss an opportunity before closing to remind the government that when it rejected the British-funded Security Sector Reform Plan (SSRP), as we pointed out then, it placed the safety and well-being of the citizens in peril. I can close my eyes and see the pantomime in the National Assembly as the ministers boast about how safe Guyana is and how well equipped and prepared the security services are.
Well for those families mourning and crying daily, these boasts are nothing but a tissue of lies.
There should be a law making false representations as a government official, or minister a criminal offence so that at least we can see someone punished.
The AFC offers its deepest sympathy to the families of all those whom the system failed and promise them that justice, and a better day, are coming.
Yours faithfully,
Raphael Trotman
