Dear Editor,
My first encounter with the cops in Guyana. I am a tourist. So I am at Vlissengen Road juncture where all the traffic lights are showing red. The car in front of me stopped then took off and I did the same. The cops pulled him over and flagged me down. He asked the first car to go ahead then came up to my car. He wanted to know what am I doing in Guyana; what business I have and where am I going.
This cop who saw and knew that the lights were out of order asked me without looking at a single document to go down to the police station. What for? So I do not know where the police station is and started following him thinking that he is taking me to the station. We drove around and around several streets giving me a royal tour, then I stopped and told him that I would like to make a phone call to my lawyer. By this time I had become fearful and angry.
I attended a conference at the Convention Centre last week where the theme was promoting tourism in Guyana.
This police procedure in driving fear into drivers might be common police practice and conduct in Guyana. Cops are supposed to be helpful people. In Barbados the cops go out of their way to protect tourists and be helpful.
Later my friends told me that they were probably hoping for a bribe. It did not occur to me because this is a ticketing offence; what is he taking me down to the police station for?
In Guyana it seems that the Police have found a new target for their resources, the tourists, new business people and foreigners.
All I can say after this incident is no matter how many conferences you keep, Guyana is not ready for tourism, not the police, not the service industry and certainly not the tourists.
Yours respectfully,
Hema Persaud for a friend