Dear Editor,
Cotton Field on the Essequibo Coast has become a lawless place since a few people came to live there and do business. On Saturday, March 18, in my sleep I heard seven loud explosions, like gunshots. I woke up my wife and told her that bandits were attacking someone.
I was scared by the sound having experienced this kind of explosion before in Cotton Field in 1992, when the village was under attack by bandits robbing the Guyana National Cooperative Bank. I then decided to call the Anna Regina Police station to report this incident. Afterwards, I heard loud music coming from the Cotton Field back street near the seaside. We heard birthday songs playing and more firecrackers with loud sounds like gunfire; the loud music continued until 3 am.
I wondered how my sick aunt was making out with the noise from the firecrackers since she lives three houses from the birthday party. I found out that at midnight she had to be rushed to the Suddie Hospital for medical treatment. In this very street there are many sick and elderly people, some of whom are handicapped and others bedridden.
Editor, this is not the first time these things have happened in my village. I recall that the same thing happened in 2011, when a drunken businessman fired several shots on the public road at midnight.
The people who do these things do not belong to Cotton Field; they come from other parts of the Essequibo Coast and Georgetown. This village was once a peaceful place, and villagers could walk the road any time in the night and day without fear.
Today you have to look over your shoulder when you are walking for fear of being robbed.
I understood later that when the police arrived they shut down the noise, but I want to know if any charges were laid against those who were disturbing the peace. For how long do we have to bear with this kind of nonsense when the law prohibits it in a residential area?
Another thing which is disturbing is the vehicles with big boom boxes playing loud music any time during the day and night.
They are destroying people’s health and causing our houses to vibrate. These vehicle owners do not have to apply to a magistrate to play their music; they do it any time regardless of which zone they are in, and whether it’s a hospital or a magistrate’s court.
Coming back to the firecrackers, it is very hard to distinguish the sounds of a firecracker from a gunshot; that’s why people cannot know when a true robbery is being committed when fireworks are being used. I sincerely hope that the police will pay keener attention to this village and others when these kinds of things happen, and prosecute the culprits.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan