It must be concerning that days after an exit ceremony for an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-financed citizen security programme that a man should have died in a ward of the capital, the victim of a stray bullet from a shoot-out between youth gangs.
Despite the incident having occurred on Friday afternoon, up to Sunday midday there had been no official word from the Guyana Police Force on either the incident or its investigation.
Accounts of the incident in Albouystown painted a chilling picture of lawlessness and the insecurity that citizens face on a daily basis.
Dexter McFarlane, 53, a construction worker of Laing Avenue had just alighted from a bus and was using a short cut to get to his home when he was cut down by the bullet.
Mr McFarlane’s brother told Stabroek News, “While I was coming home my neighbour tell me that somebody get shoot up this side hay and so when I walking come down somebody else tell me that is my brother who get shoot and when I come I see my brother lie down in the short cut hay dead.”
He added, “He (McFarlane) de just come from work and was out of a bus he come from when he went walking through the short cut and he get shoot…but is nah he they go to shoot…is like some youth man them had some lil story and is crossfire, they crossfire, me brother and shoot he.”
Mr McFarlane’s niece Nefta McFarlane-Wilson articulated the family’s demand for justice.
“We are trusting God that the law will take its course and our family will be given justice…we are calling for justice and the police need to do their work because my uncle lost his life innocently…he’s a hardworking man and he didn’t deserve to die like that.
“My uncle went to work as usual and on his way back from work there was a shoot-out and unfortunately he was caught in the way and so he subsequently died,” she added.
Another family member related that based on what was said at the crime scene by eyewitnesses, the shoot-out erupted at Independence Boulevard among four men who are said to be involved in gangs and eventually terminated at Laing Avenue where it ended in tragedy.
“It is being peddled that it was between two gangs that included four persons, two were on motorcycle and two were running…the shooting started from the Boulevard (Independence Boulevard), one of the men that were running is from the Boulevard so that’s where the shooting started and then they ran through the Front Road area and then came through second bridge (Laing Avenue) where they were still shooting and is around there through a short cut that a bullet hit Dexter when he was walking coming home”, the family member said.
It would be interesting to learn how exactly the IDB’s Citizen Security Programme (CSP) impacted Albouystown in its two costly projects going all the way back to 2006. Albouystown was one of the 20 at-risk communities where there were interventions under this IDB programme. The exit document said that sports and kitchen equipment was provided. No other information was supplied. Needless to say, the trifecta that characterised Friday’s deadly crossfire: guns, youths and gangs would have been key areas of interest for this IDB programme but as can be seen from Trinidad and elsewhere solutions are not readily available.
At the CSP exit ceremony on November 4th both the Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn and the acting Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken underlined the importance of visiting communities and speaking to residents.
“If we don’t go into the communities and speak one-on-one” the GPF is not going to have a firsthand insight into the problems that are to be dealt with or how to serve the people, Mr Hicken said.
The police force urgently needs to learn and understand what transpired in this Laing Avenue incident. Given the volatility of the situation and the risk to members of the community, the force has to operate carefully in eliciting what occurred last Friday and this should be given the utmost priority to prevent an escalation. The participants in this shoot-out which killed Mr McFarlane and endangered the lives of others must be brought to justice.
There is also the not inconsequential matter of the effectiveness of this IDB financing considering that it adds to the national debt. On June 29, 2006, under a PPP/C administration and in the midst of a bloody wave of crime, the IDB approved US$19.8 million for citizen security. The loan was for 40 years, with a 10-year grace period. Interest rates were set at one percent a year during the first decade and two percent a year thereafter.
Again under a PPP/C government in 2014, the IDB approved a further US$15 million to Guyana for citizen security. Half of the US$15 million loan was financed from the IDB´s Fund for Special Operations, which carries a 0.25 percent interest rate and a 40-year amortization period. The remainder was financed from ordinary capital with a fixed interest rate and a 30-year amortization period.
Rather than engaging in outlandish and abusive behaviour such as the blocking of a government minister from visiting the Belladrum Community Centre, the APNU+AFC should be expending their energies on examining projects such as these, the second instalment of which fell entirely in their term in office, to determine whether there was a value for money and whether its deliverables should have been able to deter acts like Friday’s shoot-out in Albouystown.
