FIGHTING CRIME IS NOT EASY
The good news is that the police seem to have the upper hand on the criminals but fighting crime is not an easy task. Despite the fact that the crime rate is down, many still believe that the country is being run over by criminals. The situation is often being politicized by the opposition.
During the elections campaign in 2015 the People’s Progressive Party actually told its supporters that should the party be voted out of office the people would be visited by soldiers and policemen who would rape them. That was as crude as the campaign got. The majority of policemen and soldiers are people of African ancestry.
Today, despite the obvious success recorded by the law enforcement officers and despite the palpable drop in crime there needs to be a united front on the issue of combating crime. There should be a permanent mechanism or framework to ensure collaboration between the governments.
The government has unequivocally pointed out that it is treating crime very seriously and that the crime fighting techniques are intact and remains a high priority. There are no longer crime hot spots and the police seem to have neutralized the extent to which the criminals adorned themselves with high-powered weapons. The truth is that the police have been so successful that the known criminals have all but disappeared. Today’s criminals are young, unintelligent men whose sole desire is to have money and the physical trappings of wealth.
The current situation calls for more drastic action or else the criminals will continue to create havoc in the country. We must rally around our leaders and the police so that they would leave no stone unturned in the search for measures to combat this persistent enemy.
But all the bells and whistles will ring hollow if the opposition does not cooperate with law enforcement. The very opposition could one day become the government. What happens then? A national non-partisan crusade in all its several facets is needed to fight crime, aspects of which have assumed international proportions. There are the issues of drug smuggling, gold smuggling and even people smuggling. There is money laundering. These are the crimes that warrant more attention.
The robberies are confined to the borders of the country but the other crimes are international. Of interest is that they have an impact inside the country. Drug busts often lead to execution-type murders.
Crime has become a serious problem in the country. The criminals now have little or no political allegiance. They will gravitate to the source least likely to attack them. We have seen what happens in those countries where the drug trade has reached such proportions that even the leaders in the country can become statistics. Judges have been killed en route to work; officials have been kidnapped and the list continues.
When people in Guyana talk about crime they talk about the home invasions and the other robberies. But many know that the beast lurks. This is what the government must combat. This is what people must be aware of and this is on what the opposition must openly adopt a position.
Simply put, the crime situation is never confined to a single political party. Surely it is not the sole task of a government and this is why no opposition party can sit and gloat when a government appears to lose a grip on crime as has been the case in Guyana.
But then again, in a country like ours, problems are merely the prerogative of one group. Or are they?
