On October 8th, the Guyana Police Force began issuing a series of bulletins for persons it said were wanted for questioning in connection with murder. Though it didn’t officially disclose this, the police wanted to interrogate these individuals in relation to three hair-raising shootings in recent weeks which claimed eight lives and left the city shell-shocked. All told, 14 bulletins were issued in less than 24 hours including for well-known persons whose whereabouts would have been known to the police.
After the wanted men began to turn themselves in they were held and questioned for varying periods before being released. Some of the 14 are still to submit themselves to the police.
What led the police to embark on this frenzied campaign of issuing bulletins is not known as the police have resisted all efforts to elicit rational and reasoned explanations of their actions. What is however apparent is that this ostentatious and misplaced display of authority has not advanced the police’s knowledge of the identities of those behind this series of heinous murders or equipped them with the evidence to pursue vigorous prosecution.
The September 4th fusillade in Cummings Lodge which claimed the lives of five including a woman and her child represented a renewed and dangerous challenge to the state from the brutishness of organized crime and this carnage sparked tit-for-tat killings which may not be at an end. There has since been a clamour by the public for the police force to shed some light on what happened and to corral the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Six weeks later, as in countless cases this year, the police have not been able to make an arrest specific to this case much more bring a charge. In the interim there have been more shootings with bullets believed to have been discharged by the fearsome AK-47 which has become synonymous with the bloodshed of 2002-3. With each shooting the pressure on the police and the government is ramped up. With each unexplained killing the police and the government appear ineffectual and society at grievous risk of unrestrained killings and other violence.
It was in this climate that the bulletins were issued. One can reasonably infer several possible explanations for the bulletins. First, the police had suddenly and miraculously come into possession of information and intelligence linking these 14 men with the incidents under investigation. If this were the case it would likely have been information supplied by a more capable force with superior intelligence-gathering ability such as the FBI or Scotland Yard. More telling, the suspects would have already been in a court of law.
Second, the police had no credible leads as to who the triggermen were in these killings so they opted in favour of a scattershot dragnet to see who would come in and what information might be volunteered. If this were the case it seems that the force got little as the subjects of their investigation would hardly yield anything even if they knew.
Third, bewildered by the violence and desperate to bring it to an end the police swooped on those who it believed could influence the shooters to have their weapons holstered.
Fourth, the law enforcers were firing a warning shot across the bow of persons it believes it might have to soon begin investigating because of international pressure and domestic considerations.
Whatever the reason, the exertions of the police have not yielded a satisfactory outcome for the crime-beset country. If anything, the citizens likely feel even more vulnerable knowing that weeks have elapsed and the police are still to prosecute the multiple killers.
Moreover, by the farcical issuing of the bulletins and the absence of charges, the police force has made itself the object of much ridicule and at the same time raised legitimate questions about the circumstances in which these bulletins can be issued and the injury done to the reputations of those who are the subject of the bulletins, some of whom are prominent members of the business community.
So what is the police force’s Plan B now that this bulletin farce has dissolved so embarrassingly? Notwithstanding the charge in relation to Mark Caesar’s shooting there is no obvious line of pursuit and the trail for all three of these incidents grows cold. Those who squeezed the triggers remain at large and able to take on targets as may be contracted by those with the means and remorselessness.
The growing and tangible danger is that Guyana risks further erosion of law and order and the little remaining confidence in the public that the police force can function at an effective level.
Unfortunately, the government has barricaded itself from offers of professional help and the astringent possibilities of the Disciplined Forces Commission report so it has no one but itself to blame for the grotesque acts of violence.
From the moment the bulletins were issued the Guyanese public was collectively unimpressed and cynical to the extent that they predicted the denouement of this particular gambit. So the challenge remains. Who has been gunning down left, right and centre; who has been issuing the instructions; where are they getting the drugs and weaponry from and can they be brought to justice even though the same hierarchy in place was scandalously inept in its handling of drug trafficker Roger Khan? What of all the possible informants who should be able to whisper but seem only prepared to do this in foreign courts? These are the questions that President Jagdeo’s government must meaningfully inquire into and construct solutions otherwise it would be defaulting to a dangerous vacuum.
