I saw improper police behaviour and I intervened

On Sunday evening I was on my way home when on the street where I live, the Railway Embankment, I saw a police roadblock at the junction at Conversation Tree.
There was no visible police car with the police emblem, the anti-crime ranks in dark, navy blue uniforms had no identification, and the structure was no way near a police station. These are the requirements that must obtain when there is a police roadblock.
I have the mobile numbers for the Police Commissioner and the Commander, ‘A’ Division, Clifton Hicken.
With that knowledge, I stopped my car, came out and insisted that the roadblock was improper. The officer in charge said he wasn’t aware of the requirements for the roadblock. I told him it was in the Kaieteur News for that very day, Sunday, March 22. I pointed out to him that I live two minutes drive from where we stand and I could retrieve the newspaper and show him.
He agreed to examine the newspaper. I went home, brought it to him, he read it and conceded that the structure was not near to a police station, the ranks had no visible identification tags but he disagreed with the placement of the police vehicle. The SUV was parked in a dark corner so drivers couldn’t see it. I told him it had to be situated where oncoming traffic could clearly detect it. I rang the Kaieteur News and told two of my colleagues what was going on – Michael Jordan and Dale Andrews.
I am urging citizens not to cooperate with an improper police roadblock. If citizens insisted on their rights long ago, Bharrat Jagdeo could not have incited a minority President to kick asses. If citizens had insisted on their rights long ago, three innocent protestors in 2012 in Linden would not have been gunned down during the tenure of Clifton Hicken in Region Ten.
I am demanding that the opposition seek an urgent meeting with the Police Commissioner on forms of harassment that are currently taking place with opposition officials at opposition public meetings.
An APNU-AFC campaign driver told me after an opposition rally was completed in Diamond, that the traffic ranks at Grove Police Station stopped the open-back pick-up with the public address system, searched the vehicle, demanded to see the relevant documents and insisted that both driver and passenger take a breathalyzer test.
Surely, it is stupid and ignorant to ask a passenger to take a breathalyzer test. If the opposition does not nip this in the bud, their supporters will see them as weak.
Not only is this intimidation but such police conduct is improper. There are no longer routine traffic stops. The Police Commissioner made that announcement and it was carried in that very Sunday article. The instructions to traffic ranks are, while on patrol they can only stop a motorist if they see an act of illegality by a driver – over the speed limit; over-taking on a double line, no display of road licence on the windscreen etc. But traffic ranks cannot conduct routine checks.
The nagging question I have in my mind is whether the Police Commissioner is pulling a con on the Guyanese public. I don’t mean to be insulting to the Police Commissioner by the use of the word “con.”  It is a typical word journalists and columnists use lightly. But something is not right here.
If there are clear procedures that must be followed by the roadblock operators, why then in the Sunday night operation, was the marked police SUV hidden in the dark, the anti-crime ranks had no badges on display and why was there no police station nearby? This does not make sense to me.
It is like the police, given the conditions under which they must enter a church – knock on the door, call out to the parishioners, etc. But if they go to the church and kick down the door then they have acted illegally. Was that road block on the street where I live illegal? Why did the police stop the APNU-AFC driver and want the passenger to take an alcohol test?
I see traffic ranks doing nonsense daily on the roads. I have intervened more times than can be counted on the crass behaviour of anti-crime ranks on the motorcycles. They are not to do traffic duties but they continue to do so in full view of the public. I had to insist at least three times for this month for them to stop this impropriety. These motorcycle miscreants are stopping people without reasonable suspicion but for routine checks. I will continue to watch them.