The Guyana Police Force has an unparalleled ability to keep shooting itself in the foot. There it was again on Tuesday mishandling a situation which essentially involved nothing more than the inspection of documents at a roadblock, but which metamorphosed into an incident involving physical violence. The Force – in this case the officers at Sparendaam Police Station – ensured it would make the front pages by directing its imprudent attentions to the family of murdered cousins, Joel and Isaiah Henry.
Inevitably, the account of the GPF diverged markedly from that of the GHRA. As everyone who traverses the East Coast road knows, Sparendaam is a favourite spot for police roadblocks, and around 7.30 on the night of December 15th, a car driven by Colwyn Henry, the brother of Joel, that was also carrying Colwyn’s mother, Gail Johnson, and Isaiah’s father, Gladstone Henry, was stopped there along with other vehicles.
According to the police Colwyn could not produce his driver’s licence, and resisted officers’ instructions while being “exceedingly abusive”. He was ordered to get out of his car and violently resisted arrest, said a GPF press release, while Ms Johnson then attacked the police officer who was escorting her son into the station. This officer suffered injuries to his face and arm, and the clothing of the sergeant assisting in the arrest was damaged. The statement went on to say that the two were taken into custody and subsequently placed on $15,000 bail.
Approximately 30 minutes after being taken into custody, Attorney Nigel Hughes arrived at the station.
So much for the police version. For its part the GHRA said that it arrived at Sparendaam around 8.50pm, following a call from a “distraught Johnson”. The association said that the scene was chaotic, with Colwyn chained to the floor, “Nigel Hughes protesting the treatment of his client, many police officers milling around to no evident purpose, Colwyn’s mother phasing in and out of consciousness as a result of elevated blood pressure … and Gladstone Henry also attempting to inject sanity into the police behaviour.” A sergeant from another station was eventually to arrive and impose some order.
The human rights agency account said that when stopped, Mr Colwyn Henry had the requisite documents, with the exception of his driving licence. However, he showed the officer the electronic copy of the licence on his cell phone, which was rejected, although the GHRA said it could attest to the fact that it was a clear and precise photo.
Subsequently Mr Colwyn Henry asked the policeman to talk to the Region Five Commander whom he had called on his cellphone to vouch for the validity of the licence, but this he refused to do. It was after this that the physical altercation started, and a number of policemen intervened. Ms Johnson’s attempts on behalf of her son resulted in a plain clothes officer physically attacking her, which caused Colwyn to retaliate in order to protect his mother. The GHRA said that evidence of the attack was available on social media.
The police clearly have some explaining to do. Firstly, why were all these officers (plain clothes and uniformed) milling around a station like Sparendaam at that time of night? Don’t they have any crime in that area to keep them occupied? After all, the failure to produce a driver’s licence is not a threat to anybody’s safety or the stability of society. And why was Mr Colwyn Henry made to suffer the indignity of being chained to the floor? While ordinary police ranks are no doubt instructed not to accept electronic evidence of documents, some officers do exercise discretion, sending off drivers with a warning, sometimes asking them to come the next day with their driver’s licence. In this case, however, the officer was invited to speak to the Region Five Commander for verification, which he reportedly declined to do. What was his problem? Is the Commander’s word not to be trusted?
As it is, a simple problem relating to the production of a driver’s licence for police inspection, ballooned into a veritable circus, ending with Mr Henry on five and his mother on two charges, as well as the latter having to be taken to hospital. It is positively laughable if it were not so preposterous. And when contemplating this utter fiasco, the police hierarchy perhaps should remember that segments of it took place in front of witnesses, such as the GHRA, that the physical assault is on video circulating on social media, and that there will be evidence of injuries from the hospital. Clearly police training is very defective if the average officer is of the view that his role is all about asserting his power, and employing physical assault as a weapon in pursuit of that end.
The police statement ended rather pompously wishing to “remind” citizens that it remains committed to its mandate under the Constitution and laws, “as it seeks to provide a service that guarantees the safety and security of every person within our country.” After what happened last Tuesday, how do the police expect anyone to believe them?
What this spectacle at Sparendaam partly obscured was the fact that when stopped, the Henry family had been returning home from a lecture given by Dr Luis Fondebrider of the Argentine Team of Forensic Anthropologists. He had been invited here to determine whether his organisation could help the GPF in solving the West Coast Berbice murders of the Henry boys and Haresh Singh. He had asked the police for about 20 documents to assist him in his evaluation, including autopsy reports, pictures of the crime scenes and maps. However, so far the police have not committed themselves to providing this. In fairness to them, they would not prevaricate or refuse unless they had confidence that this was what their political bosses wanted.
In early October, the GPF, the GHRA and the law firm Hughes, Fields & Stoby had announced in a joint statement that the Argentine team had offered to aid local authorities with the investigations into the three murders. At that point the police probably felt fairly confident adopting this line because President Irfaan Ali himself had mentioned the Argentinians shortly after the killings. Subsequently, however, they would have found themselves out on a limb when Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn appeared to backtrack on this, ruling out any engagement with the Argentine Team.
Instead, the Force offered a $3 million reward for information leading to the arrest and charging of the perpetrators. Both the money and by implication, the new approach to the investigation, presumably was supplied by government. Be that as it may, shortly thereafter several persons were held. The media was given to understand that this was a direct consequence of information obtained following the reward offer, but now, a little more than a month later, nothing more has been heard of it.
The reward offer had caused many people to come to the conclusion that the police had run out of options, which caused the GHRA to propose a citizens’ initiative whereby the public would pay half the cost of bringing the Argentinians here, and the government would meet the other half. The total would be around $7 million. The association did not ask for cash at this stage, but pledges, and a surprising number of people responded.
While Dr Fondebrider did meet a number of officials when here, he did not get a meeting with local investigators, “There was no technical or professional exchange with the police,” the GHRA’s Mr Mike McCormack said. As observed above, this is more likely to reflect a government position than a GPF one. The PPP for historical reasons will not want to work with the human rights organisation, but in any case, it would be very much averse to allowing a citizens’ initiative to move into what they would regard as exclusive government terrain.
So what is President Ali proposing to do now, if the police are not to be allowed to hand documents to the Argentine Team? How will the murders be solved? Not by tolerating the physical assault by police on members of the Henry family over a driver’s licence, surely?
Acting Commissioner Nigel Hoppie told the public some time ago that the police would leave no stone unturned to solve the three murders. Well there are still a number of unturned stones, and it is up to the government to decide if any of them will yet be turned.
