Dear Editor,
I am a senior citizen. On Friday, January 26, 2017 at about 9.45 am, I had just completed my transaction with the Bank of Guyana and I was standing just in front of the northern side of the building waiting to cross the street to go to Courts to conduct my business. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a minivan, (number provided) screeched to a halt inches away from me. Startled by the suddenness of it all, I jumped back. Another reckless minibus driver I thought. But no! I noticed, to my surprise, the minivan bore the insignia of the Guyana Police Force! What?
The police! Immediately, the front door opened, a police officer in the passenger seat next to the driver jumped out, revolver drawn, pointed upwards in the air, gave me a quick nod of acknowledgment as if to say “You’re safe …” and a knowing smile and rushed with the other policemen, guns drawn and at the ready, and entered the Bank of Guyana.
What’s going on here, I thought. Startled, I looked towards the driver, the policeman behind the wheel. He glared at me, lurched forward suddenly, and snatched something from the tray of the dashboard. The next thing I realized he had a silver hand gun in his hand, probably a revolver. I don’t know much about guns, but it was very unsettling.
He held it across his waist, pointed, knowingly, in my direction and sat there staring at me, waiting. I felt threatened. Intimidated. There I was, a law-abiding citizen, peacefully going about my business, suddenly threatened by a gun-toting policeman providing escort service who doesn’t have the judgment to tell the difference between a septuagenarian and a teenage bandit! God help us!
That one police officer by his uncalled for threatening act, had immediately tarnished the image of professionalism of the rest of the officers in that group.
Editor, it has been said that ‘one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel’. That police officer by his uncalled for act of intimidation, has seared in my mind the image of police mindless intimidation. He has done his colleagues in that group a disservice. He needs training. Lots of it. He, not the bandits, is more of a menace to society than the bandits.
As a senior citizen, I do not feel safe with the way some police behave. I feel safer among a bunch of thieves rather than a group of Guyanese policemen, because I believe even criminals would know not only instinctively, as opportunistic predators, but by observation, who is a threat and who is not.
So, when I read in the papers that yet another anti-narcotics policeman has been arrested with drugs, I am not stunned. Or, that a police detective has been charged for murder, I am not shocked. Or, that a police corporal has failed a lie-detection test and has been dismissed for extortion, I am not bowled over. Or, that the driver of a police vehicle has been charged with manslaughter, I am not taken aback.
There are too many ‘rotten apples’ in the police force.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
