(Eyewitness)We have to tell you – we’re sick and tired of the official excuses for the crime waves that keeps on battering our long suffering people. And “waves” it is. Wherever you turn, all you see are pointing fingers. It’s good to see the police releasing statistics showing that armed robberies – and murders during those robberies – keep skyrocketing.
Their clerical skills are improving. All well and good. But is this what we, the taxpayers of Guyana, have been pumping billions and billions of our hard-earned dollars into the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for? Is this what we’ve provided them with a fleet of cars greater than all the taxi services in the country put together, for? Is this why we’ve been sending dozens of officers abroad for training every year?
You’re damn right it’s not. We’ve also had it up to our kazoos with the “explanations” from the civilian bosses in the Home Affairs Ministry. They set the policies…press buttons…but nothing happens at the other end. Well, how long are we going to go along with this? Isn’t 20 years enough time to straighten out this mess? Hey!! We can’t have any sacred cows: if people aren’t following departmental policies – there’s only one thing to do: fire them.
So we might have to fire hundreds? Well, so be it! Sometimes you need some bloodletting to fix a patient on his deathbed. And from what we’re seeing, the GPF’s certainly isn’t showing any signs of life. In the U.S., there’s a running gag about policemen and their love of donuts. In Guyana, it’s about their penchant for shaking down citizens while allowing bandits, who rob and maim and murder, to get off scotch free. Are there even investigations – much less firings – when citizens complain about calling police stations and not getting any responses?
The Home Affairs Ministry has to take the bull by the horns and call a spade a spade. Even the opposition is now sententiously complaining about police not doing their jobs. The police have to begin to solve crimes – not just report them.
The latest murder of a young businessman on the West Coast of Demerara is particularly egregious. Serving the community, upstandingly progressive – and now his life’s snuffed out by bandits – who will blithely go on with their crime spree. They know there isn’t the will in the GPF to do anything. Somebody better bell the cat quickly.