Policing is very complicated business. It is an unenviable task, because it has to do for the most part with maintaining law and order, and I must say, for a minority grouping of the populace there are those who are not inclined to live by the rules.They are a minority, yet significant nonetheless, because, ever so often, they can be used to create havoc in society. In tandem with this group is a political group of opportunistic leaders who ride on the wave of confusion to gain

cheap political mileage. So there is a combination of horrible persons and groups at work in Guyana today.
With that one-seat majority of theirs, the opposition forces are making it difficult for the lawmen to get about their duties in a decent and lawful manner; as a consequence, policing is a very burdensome job, whichever way you put it and nothing good can come out of that process.

Having painted this backdrop I shall first discuss the Shaquille Grant police killing. Here we have a situation where the police were called out to carry out their legitimate duties in a community that has adopted the opposition's rage. They were met with hostility and they responded in kind which resulted in Grant's death. Let me pause here to say that the police are duty bound to take action even if it requires the use of lethal force. When the situation becomes dire and the lives of the lawmen are at risk, they have every right to exercise force that is over and beyond that of the criminal to subdue him. A gun was recovered at the Agricola scene and this makes the lawmen's case even more airtight. What the soothsayers contend is, the policemen's lives were not in danger and furthermore no firearm was used, which is tantamount to saying that the police ought to wait until they are shot at, or even killed before taking action. A big joke if ever you've heard one. Standard operating procedure requires the police to do what they did; barring this would be calling on the lawmen to commit suicide, which is not going to happen. Persons of the likes of Nigel Hughes, who were not remotely close to the operation, and who has a political axe to grind can come out to dictate to the police how to do its work. Which brings me to the question: why were these policemen charged with murder? This is not a matter for a common court, rather it should be relegated for internal police investigation to see whether they acted well within their mandate. In any case, the lawmen have their legitimate rights to lean on even in a court of law. The same could be said of the Linden scenario where the lawmen were confronted with danger and lethal action had to be taken. I know what would be the report of the Commission of Inquiry even before it closes. The report and recommendations are a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, the Dameon Belgrave case is a different matter where we have police carrying out their legitimate duties in pursuing criminals, who were able to skilfully evade an arrest by driving into a crowded area. Here again,a police high-speed chase is nothing new. We see these every day in the metropolis, but what went horribly wrong is the discharging of weapons in a crowded street of persons. This is a situation of police panicking and responding in a reckless manner in the discharge of their weapons. There is no excuse for this type of recklessness and for this those responsible ought to be punished and the mother of the slain youngster heavily compensated for the wrongful death of her son. The government has to bear the full brunt of this sad situation. However, the media and the opposition who are painting the picture that the police went there expressly to kill are disgraceful. They can now peddle their idle nonsense of the innocent youths "joyriding"  or they being unarmed. This we do not know, because the report suggests otherwise, unlicensed youths parked in a dark area, Sophia of all places, where many stolen vehicles are found stripped bare of their parts and hurriedly driving away from the police, this reeks of criminal behaviour. Not recovering a weapon is no excuse either, we are aware of so many cases where criminals dexterously got rid of their weapons (and this scenario also reeks of this) in high-speed chases. So harping on no weapons found is a non-issue. The criminals we have in Guyana today are clever and they know how to play the system, so let us not fool ourselves. In the final analysis, the police are there to protect and serve the innocent, law-abiding public, not to defend criminals and a criminal opposition that facilitates them.