It is a strange story. There was Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton visiting the relatives of Quindon Bacchus in Golden Grove on Monday, when he was followed by the police all the way back to his home. Twenty-three year-old Quindon Bacchus was killed last Friday at Haslington in an alleged shootout with a single police officer. It was alleged that he had been the subject of a police sting operation which had gone amiss, and a post mortem found that he had died of multiple gunshot wounds. There should be no surprise, therefore, that Mr Norton would decide to go both to offer his condolences and see what else he could learn about the case.
At a press conference later the Leader of the Opposition said that as he was leaving Golden Grove he noticed a police vehicle in addition to two policemen on motorcycles trailing him.
When he stopped, he said, they stopped, so he came out and went up to the police vehicle and asked why they were following him. “I am not violating the law, I am a law-abiding citizen,” he related as having told them. They did not answer, and soon afterwards turned back.
What is embarrassing for the police, if not the government, is the fact that what happened next is on video and has been seen on Facebook, so they are in no position to deny the basic events. The video shows two masked police officers on motorcycles following Mr Norton’s vehicle. When the Opposition Leader stopped and confronted the men saying, “Do you have the right to just drive behind me?” he received the reply, “Sir, Sir we are just following instructions.”
Mr Norton’s response to this was: “It is out of place for y’all to be driving behind people who did not commit [a] crime … You know you are violating my rights and you don’t have the right to do it because somebody tell you it was right to violate me.” Notwithstanding the exchange, after the Opposition Leader drove off the policemen still appeared to be following him. He said that in order to confirm this was the case, somewhere near Coldingen he decided to turn, after which he went to them again and asked why they were tailing him. The reply he received, he said, gave the appearance of the decision having emanated from the hierarchy of the Force. This took place some time after 12 pm.
There are one or two initial observations to be made about this incident. The first is how did the police know Mr Norton was at Golden Grove? Did they follow him there and he did not notice the tail? Or was someone at Golden Grove police station or living nearby tasked with alerting an unknown authority about his presence? The second interesting thing about this episode is that the police were making no attempt to hide their presence. This was no undercover operation. Even after the two officers on motorcycles were challenged they persisted in following Mr Norton all the way home.
What is equally interesting is that the policemen were wearing masks, so while whoever it was who sent them did not want them personally to be identified, they still wanted it recognised that they were members of the Police Force. It is a great pity that Mr Norton did not ask for their numbers and rank. Be that as it may, it says nothing for this unnamed authority that he appeared to want to intimidate the Opposition Leader, or make him uneasy perhaps, or send a message that his activities were being tracked.
The question would then have to be asked why would anyone in a supposed democracy want to find out about the Opposition Leader’s activities by trailing around after him, or is it a case of viewing him not in his opposition capacity, but as Leader of the PNCR, bringing up shades of old enmities? In any case, is it really the intention to follow Mr Norton everywhere he goes, or was this some one-off event triggered in an unknown person’s paranoid mind by memories of what happened after the murder of the Henry boys when the two most senior opposition leaders went to West Coast Berbice? In other words, fearing a reprise, was it decided to send a detail to tell the Leader he was being watched?
One should not be overly optimistic that the full truth will ever be revealed, although if this stunt were mounted again it would cause the government problems, whether or not they had direct involvement. As it stands the plot thickens when it comes to the question of who is responsible. There is certainly no lack of denials, beginning with Commissioner of Police (ag) Clifton Hicken.
He told Stabroek News that he would have to enquire from the Divisional Commander Khali Pareshram as to what had transpired. “I don’t know anything like that … Why would the police want to trail Mr Norton?” we quoted him as saying.
Commander Pareshram when contacted by this newspaper appeared no better informed, saying he was “not aware” of the matter and neither was he aware of any complaints about the issue. And then we have Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn himself, telling Stabroek News that it was an “untidy, unnecessary and useless” exercise. “We ain’t in the business of following anybody around like that and I am sure that the police, if they wanted to follow Mr Norton around, would have better ways which are less obvious of following him around, if they ever wanted to follow him around,” he said. Interestingly, he told our reporter that he had since engaged the Police Force to determine whether it was necessary. “I saw some video … I did speak to the police people,” he said.
Since Mr Benn does not seem to have had prior knowledge of this operation, did anyone else in government? If so, there is a problem since the GPF falls within his portfolio. But independently of that there is a problem with the police in any case. If neither the Commissioner nor the Commander knew anything about it just who was it within the Force or without it who issued the order?
At the very least it would suggest the GPF is fragmented and that the linear hierarchy is not functioning. No police force can discharge its duties as it is designed to do in such circumstances, in addition to which in this instance it would mean that some element within the Guyana Police Force takes precedence over the Commissioner himself. Worse yet if some element in government gave the orders. What does President Irfaan Ali have to say about the whole business since he is the Commander-in-Chief as well as the head of government?
This is not a surveillance state – or at least it shouldn’t be. If the powers that be at any level consider it is their right to monitor opposition figures who are an essential element in our constitutional system, then they are living an authoritarian fantasy, not a democratic reality. The government should move quickly to get to the bottom of this story and reassure citizens that we are not sliding into autocratic mode.
