Minister of Youth Affairs, Simona Broomes yesterday expressed disappointment on her Facebook page at the manner in which ranks of the Bartica Police Station are executing their duties.
During the wee hours of yesterday, the minister said she made a call for help from the police but they failed to respond.
Broomes, who was in the town over the weekend, said she was at her home and was awoken by screams from a young lady at around 4.10 am. The minister said she went out on her verandah but couldn’t see anyone but kept hearing the cry for help from the bushes.
“I heard this woman screaming for help in a different tone and language. She is screaming for help in Portuguese or Spanish and immediately I picked up the phone and called the police. I said `Officer good morning, my name is Simona Broomes, and I am the minister within [the ministry of the Presidency]. I would like to report somebody is screaming for help just outside of my house in the bush in the West Indian Housing Scheme’”, the minister recounted in a Facebook live post where she expressed her dissatisfaction at the police in her constituency.
In the post, the minister said that she spent over an hour trying to assist the young woman who was in distress but no police rank showed up during that time.
Broomes said at 5.15 am she decided to drive to the station and enquire why no one had showed up.
“Oh yeah, two girl just pulled up in a car and a police gone with them. Mussy the same matter that you are talking about,” was the response she received from the rank at the station.
The minister questioned in her live post why the police did not utilise the ATV motor bike that was available or walk to the scene since it was only five minutes away.
Broomes said that during her visits to the township she would receive complaints from victims of abuse on the ranks’ lackadaisical approach to dealing with their reports.
“Young ladies are telling me, Minister the police don’t come when you make a report. And I am telling them write a letter to the Commissioner [of Police Leslie James] and Minister of Public Security [Khemraj Ramjattan],” she said while calling on victims of abuse to speak out about their encounters with police.
“I want the Commissioner of Police to see this…I won’t keep quiet. I am not here to shoo shoo. I have said it before I don’t have a cat spirit. I was telling you write but now I am the voice and I won’t lose this voice. I have been quiet for too long,” the minister declared.
She reminded ranks that they are there to serve and protect.
Broomes said that the young woman through a translator explained her dilemma to her.
The young woman related that she left the bar with a man and after visiting his home he followed her to the road and took her valuables. Unfamiliar with the area, the young lady said she walked and arrived at a dead end. As she was trying to get out she fell into a hole and that was when she raised an alarm for help.
Broomes said too many reports of abuse are being recorded in her hometown and called on her fellow Barticians to take a stand against it.
“Abuse is Abuse. I have a voice for the poor and the weak and I will continue to speak out against this. Women in this place are asking where is justice? (Abuse) must stop. Let us bring an end to this,” she said emphatically.
