Expressing outrage and condemnation over the recent shooting and killing of Westminster resident Jairam Ramkishun and Venezuelan national Evelyn Alves, the Alliance for Change (AFC) is calling on Guyanese to demand more from the Government and the Guyana Police Force (GPF).
According to the release, the nation of Guyana is in need of a moral reckoning and Guyanese need agree that its citizens do not deserve such violent and sudden death by the gun.
“This nation is certainly in need of a moral reckoning. Guyanese of all strata, creed and colour must agree that its citizens do not deserve to die suddenly and violently by bullets,” it said.
While offering its condolences to the bereaved families of the murder victims, the AFC called for outrage to be felt when such incidents take place, especially in light of the regular occurrences of late.
“We seem to have become numbed to it all. We, however, should take to the Press, social media, and streets demanding that Government and our enforcement actors diagnose carefully why this increase in shootings and killings, and prognose the treatment for its reduction if not its elimination,” the release asserted.
The opposition party further noted that it is aware that much work was done under the Citizen Security and Strengthening Programme and the British Security Sector Reform Programme and observed that implementation of the recommendation have no doubt ceased or have been put on the back burner.
“To be sustainably successful in reducing gun violence, the Enforcement actors, primarily the Guyana Police Force, must craft appropriate evidence-based and community-informed solutions. The Government and the Enforcement actors involved must have a handle on who is committing the violence, where they are committing it, and why. The well-known tools to identify that small cohort of especially young men most likely to shoot or be shot must be employed. Crime mapping to identify where the hotspots are concentrated must be scrupulously done and shared with the public, along with the disaggregated weekly statistics of serious crimes,” the party recommended.
The release added that Government and the Police must combine data and human intelligence to understand the dynamics of this high-end lethal violence with an emphasis to discover the proximate and root causes.
The party also called for increased budgetary allocations specifically targeted at reducing gun crimes, citing the significant costs of loss of life, medical expenses, criminal justice costs, lost earnings, and reduced quality of life. The GPF and Ministry of Home Affairs were also urged to provide regular progress reports on how funds are being spent on identified areas driving gun violence.
“Devoting additional resources to curb gun violence and murders is affordable by any budgetary standard, especially if compared to the costs of the loss of lives and limbs, the medical costs, the criminal justice costs, lost earnings, the reduced quality of life and so many consequential costs of the violence. But it must be funds allocated specifically for this purpose: reduction of shooting and killing. The GPF and the Ministry of Home Affairs must thereafter provide progress reports showing that the monies are being spent on the people, places and behaviours that have been identified as driving this gun violence,” the release said.
Furthermore, the AFC lamented that the GPF seems to be failing in its core functions and progressive activities, which will have far-reaching consequences for the nation.
Ramkishun, a 69-year-old construction worker, was shot and killed on Sunday during an attempted robbery at his home in Westminster Housing Scheme, WBD. Alves on the other hand was gunned down on July 7, execution style, at Diamond, EBD.
