As much as the police use statistics to spin the narrative that crime is under control their efforts are undermined by the bloody reprisals that characterise the underworld where ‘hit men’ operate with impunity.
So even though Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner Simon McBean said on December 16 last year that Police Regional Division 4A (Georgetown) had recorded a 30% decrease in serious crime and an overall 47% clearance rate for the year, the citizenry have differing views.
This is particularly so when they are confronted with events like Saturday night’s gunning down of Delon Josiah in his home at Perseverance on the East Bank of Demerara. Two masked gunmen fired multiple times at him while he was asleep in a bedroom. This was clearly a hit, a contract had been placed on Mr Josiah’s life. As is usually the case the ‘hit men’ disappeared and it is unlikely that they will be apprehended.
There have been several other cases recently and the police have been woefully unable to make breakthroughs.
Just days earlier on January 9th, Anthony Charles, aka ‘Skiddle’, of Leopold Street, George-town was gunned down. Mr Charles who was known to the police and had been before the courts had been working as a foreman on a community project. He was riddled with 12 bullets including to his neck and forehead. Clearly, there was a contract on his life. To date, there has been no word about his killer.
On December 21 last year, Sabutaro Singh, one of the accused in the $400 million gold theft case, was stabbed to death as he was vending on Regent Street in front of Pressy’s building. He was just 22 but his connection with this gold theft could have made him a marked man. His killer was determined to get Mr Singh and did so clinically. Here again, the police have not arrested anyone though there would have been CCTV cameras around.
The public could hardly feel safe knowing that killings are occurring with impunity and without any discernible progress by the police. No case has epitomised this quandary better than the execution-style killing of Ricardo Fagundes on March 21, 2021. Not only have the killers who sported high-calibre weapons not been found and charged but the murder also unearthed a toxic brew of claims of coverups, bribery, internal feuding in the police force and untouchables. The jury is still out on these matters.
As in the crime spree that followed the 2002 jail-break, there are corridors of violence and crime that the police cannot traverse, do not want to traverse and cannot provide justice for aggrieved members of the public. The aforementioned cases seem to fall perfectly in this category.
In recent weeks the proliferation of weapons – both legal and illegal – and their wanton use has underlined another grave threat to public security. One incident in front of the Outside Bar in the MovieTowne compound could have resulted in more injuries than just one. On the first day of the new year, multiple shooters fired weapons over a relatively minor incident. Two weeks later the public has not been advised of a single charge.
So for the police to credibly claim that a diminution of crime based on their statistics has created greater safety, they have to make serious inroads in solving the crimes that could potentially mark a regrouping and strengthening of the underworld. Needless to say, with all of the oil money pouring into the country crime lords will be looking for opportunities to profit and to operate under the radar. The police have to be able to interrupt these plans.
