Every Guyanese should protest this decision of Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs
Anyone in or out of Guyana who has kept abreast of this column would know I believe Guyana has magistrates who are out of control. They would know that I have been very critical of hellish and diabolically erroneous decisions by almost ninety percent of our magistrates.
I am currently involved in a matter before the Judicial Service Commission against Magistrate Judy Latchman. I have heard nothing on this matter since I received a letter from the Chancellor informing me that he has placed my complaint with the Judicial Service Commission and has sought an explanation from the Chief Magistrate, Ms. Beharry.
I will be taking steps shortly to enquire of the status of my complaint. If I lose, so be it, but I believe this magistrate should not be on the bench, and I am going to appear before the Commission to so request. For those not familiar with this case, it centered on the refusal of the Magistrate to grant bail to an accused woman even though the prosecutor did not object to bail and informed the Magistrate that the accused may have been wrongfully charged due to a bureaucratic mistake by the police.
The story of the mediocrity and cruelty in the magistracy goes on and on like a stuck record. Berbice Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs last week jailed two persons for six months for leaving Guyana illegally. One of the accused, Arina Francis, is a teenager. Before I was born, Guyanese took a boat, crossed the Corentyne River and entered Suriname. That has been the norm since then. No day passes without a number of Guyanese landing on Surinamese territory without legally declaring their entry.
Was it that Isaacs had a bad day? If she did, she should have stayed at home when she felt she wasn’t feeling well. To jail two persons for six months, including a mere teenager for entering our neighbouring country illegally is bestial, unforgiving and simply sickening. You don’t jail people for such an offence. You don’t take away the freedom of a teenager for such an offence.
But here is the thing. The lawyers in Guyana are going to shut their mouths, because they have a duty to their clients, and if they protest this cruelty of Sherdel Isaacs then their clients will suffer if Isaacs chooses to be vindictive. It was the identical fear I received when I went door to door to ask the lawyers for a legal opinion on what Latchman did.
“Freddie don’t quote me,” Freddie I will skip this one.” Freddie, I make my living practicing law.” “Wuh wrang with yuh, Freddie, I ain’t going deh.” “Freddie you try deh.” “Freddie bhai, wuh yuh gun do, this is Guyana.” These are just a sample of the emanations I received on the Judy Latchman bail scandal when I approached some lawyers. The exception was Mr. Burch-Smith, President of the Bar Association. He said he can be quoted as saying that if the Magistrate did act that way against the accused then it was unusual.
I am warning this society that unless they speak out against the ongoing insensitivities of most of our magistrates, one day an accused who feels he cannot take the oppression may freak out. Magistrates are filling up the Camp Street remand with unreasonable bail impositions. They do not deny bail, but assign terribly high bail knowing full well that the poor accused cannot raise that sum.
It breaks your heart to see the overflowing of mediocrity in this country. I taught philosophy to a number of presently serving magistrates and so jejune were many of them that if you had told me that these people would one day become magistrates I would have cried. I honestly believe that if these magistrates go into private practice they wouldn’t even make enough to eat; who would take them. Two of these magistrates never uttered one word in my tutorials when they were my students.
I am calling on our lawyers (I will speak personally to a number of them) to appeal these two decisions of Ms. Isaacs and request bail. And I am calling on my political comrades to let us travel to Berbice and stage a picket in front of her office. We must not let this legal cruelty go unpunished. Where is Red Thread? This girl is a teenager. She didn’t rob or shoot anyone. She didn’t harm anyone. These two persons left Guyana to seek a better living in Suriname. They left a country that has virtually collapsed and has silly people with too much power in control.
