Some crimes not preventable by the State – Granger
By Vanessa Braithwaite
WITH the seeming upsurge in criminal activities, especially robberies and murders, and the pressure on government to alleviate same, President Granger is of the view that the State should not be held responsible for crimes that stem from inter-personal disputes. Many of the recent crimes are as a result of inter-personal disputes and the President said that crimes should be segregated before holding the State responsible, since some of them are not preventable by the State.
“If a woman hires a hit man to kill her father, or if a man hires a hit man to kill his wife, these are inter-personal disputes which the State cannot be held responsible for. So we have to segregate the crimes we are taking about. It’s difficult to blame the State and say what is the State doing about it,” President Granger said.
Crime is not a new thing
The President, during the weekly programme, The Public Interest, said the crime situation is one that has been inherited by his government and which has affected the security sector, including the prison service.
He explained that most of the crimes occurring now, also took place in previous years, which were not investigated. In this regard, he made reference to the 2006 murder of Minister Satyadeow “Sash” Sawh.
“We must not assume that this crime situation suddenly came on the scene on the 16th May, 2015, it has been going on for a long time and we are now seeing the impact of those lawless years, when we had the phantom gangs and rogue cops and people bringing in computing equipment and drug- traffickers. These events have very serious impact and all of us are suffering from that impact now,” the President noted.
Numbers are going down
Meanwhile, the President said the crime figures are going down, pointing to the recent statistics released by Guyana Police Force (GPF), which revealed that there is a 19 percent decrease in serious crimes at the end of the first quarter of this year, relative to the same period last year.
This, the President said, is as a result of measures implemented to fight criminal elements in rural, urban and hinterland locations. He noted that the Police Force, which is 20% below strength, has been augmented as well as the strength of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), which has resulted in better trained detectives.
The disciplined forces have also embarked on aerial patrols which resulted in the reduction of piracy attacks. According to the President, this is to supplement Operation Dragnet, which will continue up to the Golden Jubilee celebrations.
“There have been small incremental changes. I do regret that the media frenzy seems to have pulled people over thinking that things are getting worst, but things are actually getting better,” posited the Head of State.
These changes the President boasted have resulted in crimes being solved at a quicker pace. Though tremendous improvement s have been made in the crime- fighting arena, the President is not satisfied with forensic capability, but reaffirms that Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjatan, is working to have the forensic laboratory operationalised
As it relates to crimes for the first quarter of this year, there was a nine percent reduction in reports of murder; nine percent decrease in gun-related robberies; eight percent decrease in armed robberies; 38 percent decrease in robberies with violence; 38 percent decrease in robberies with aggravation; 18 percent decrease in rape; and 22 percent decrease in break and enter and larceny.
