Dear Editor,
After reading the horror story about Colwyn Harding I was almost strangled by my own anger. It took a while for it to wear off, then I said to myself here we go again, the words of Barrington Braithwaite ringing aloud and deafening: “Damaged goods” in Guyana Police Force; “The system has captured unbalanced personalities and created soulless mass murders out of them… this is only the tip of the iceberg from what I have learnt about the disturbed personalities and troubled backgrounds of some members of these groups.”
Editor, it is evident, palpably so, that the GPF is riddled with aggressive, unbalanced personalities. It is such a pity that editors don’t allow you to express yourself as you would really like to; they so often edit out your true gut feelings. Anyway, believe me, this behaviour by ‘damaged goods’ will not stop until the Guyana Police Force is completely overhauled.
This is not an isolated case; just another that came to light, and seems to reflect normal practice within the GPF. Bear in mind that the constable against whom the main allegations have been made, was beating his victim in the presence of senior officer; it’s a rotten whole.
As I have written before, with every succeeding new Commiss-ioner the force gets worse. The question is, how could a junior rank do what was reported in the presence of officers senior to him, who stood by; they too should be charged. And I’m not surprised at the uncaring, unconcerned behaviour of the female personnel at Timehri Station. I tell you, it would make you sick to your stomach to hear of the behaviour of some female police personnel.
No matter how pretty they appear, many have become callous in terms of their conduct; sometimes worse than their male colleagues. But what the heck; those in control don’t care a damn; they feel this intimidation and they feel that having things this way perhaps will somehow guarantee them a level of protection. But not to worry, as the common folks would say, it will backfire and “like a dream deferred it will fester and run.”
On the question of transferring rogue cops, this is pure poppycock; it changes nothing, corrects nothing. A bad egg is a bad egg regardless where it is placed. And it seems to me they are making fools of us, just not taking us seriously.
Editor, over time I have come to the realization that many senior ranks of the GPF have managed to divest themselves of many virtues; this seems to be a sine qua non for upward mobility. Thus you don’t often find them being naturally humane, humble or magnanimous, and they are hardly guided by principle and conscience; instead they are cold, callous calculating and insincere. They pretend and wear a façade which makes it hard for one to trust them since you can never tell where they’re at ‒ what you see is never what you get. These I find are the attributes typical of many senior officers. Then what can you expect? This is one reason why they turn a blind eye and don’t seem to be too ruffled by whatever malpractices may be done by their colleagues ‒ junior or senior ‒ no matter how horrendous these might be, as seen in this Colwyn Harding case.
Hence you have to thank the stars whenever you encounter a gentleman police officer.
The present state of the GPF is a far and sad cry from earlier times. I stand four square behind the AFC’s stand on this matter, and hope that all people lend their full support to the brother, remembering today it’s me, tomorrow you, in an attempt to arrest this madness, this lawlessness, this cancer within the GPF. Notwithstanding the above statement let us hope that justice be done, and that this particular case is the tipping-point and a catalyst for change.
Yours faithfully,
Frank Fyffe
