In the wake of frequent armed robberies committed on persons plying the routes between the boundaries of New Market and Quamina and Waterloo and Carmichael streets, the Guyana Police Force will now have police present in these areas.
“The robberies seem to be committed by three young men who are sometimes on foot, bicycles and lately they have moved up to a white Toyota car,” a security officer at the Republic Bank told Stabroek News yesterday. “The target is our workers at the bank who choose to walk that route; persons going to the gardens or coming from computer classes nearby.”
The man informed that only recently a co-worker of his was beaten after he raised an alarm when he saw a young woman being robbed of her laptop computer at gunpoint. The male guard had to be rushed to a nearby private hospital after he was gun butted and beaten mercilessly by the robbers.
An employee of Republic Bank, who requested anonymity, told Stabroek News that several complaints had been made to the police but to date employees robbed had received no feedback. “When our employees work late we provide transportation, but some choose to walk and we cannot force them. We have told our staff to be extra cautious when in this vicinity because from May this year it’s practically every day there has been a robbery,” the employee said.
When contacted yesterday, Second in Command of ‘A’ Division, Ian Amsterdam informed that it was only yesterday morning that the issue was discussed after several unofficial reports were made and the police will dispatch ranks to the area. “We have not had much official reports but enough from persons living in the area to act,” he said. “We are making the adjustments… We would normally have a booth at the Globe Cinema but that was removed and now we will now have mobile and foot patrols in the area.”
A resident of the area opined that many of the cases are not reported because some of the offences are committed on lovers who use the seclusion of the Promenade Gardens and may be too embarrassed to speak out publicly.
For the 19-year-old bank employee whose iPhone and wallet with all his money and documents were taken, the police presence means little if the perpetrators are not caught. “Having the police there is a good thing because they might think twice before doing it again but we just have to wait and see because what good [are] the police if they will just be there like white elephants,” the young man asked.
