Dear Editor,
I have protested in the street, participated in TV programmes and written dozens of letters against extra-judicial killings. Because of the questions that exist behind such actions, and the answers that emerge, but above all, because there must be a line that separates the criminal culture and that of an important arm of the Law, in this case the Police Force.
In this case of the seawall fatal shooting nothing adds up to support the Police statement that justifies the killing of these three men, who at the point of their deaths were suspects and not bandits. The laziness of my colleagues in the media can be a contributing factor to an escalation to the worst case scenario, and sections of the media did contribute to where we have been before in the 1990s to the mid 2000s.
The Police Force under this current APNU+AFC administration has made progressive leaps away from the criminalisation of the GPF that occurred under the disturbing darkness of the PPP administrations. This incident however seem senseless from the Police presentation of facts, against what is logically evident.
There are ugly precedents in the past that this incident can fit into, including bounty hunting and financed grudge assassinations, among others, though there may be a simpler, but tragic reason. That these men were on the seawall under surveillance, which places them enveloped in the jurisdiction of the Police, there is always a standby corps available in a worst case development to any commander of the GPF. That development did not seem to have occurred; this is a questionable incident that indicates retrogression to the panic treatment of crime, or to some of the elements that led and were encouraged towards the criminalisation of sections of the Force especially under Jagdeo. That should never be allowed to rise again. This incident requires an inquest to determine answers.
Yours faithfully,
Barrington Braithwaite
