The Charrandas Persaud letter; the tsunami is coming.
What a coincidence! My Friday column was on the wrong and unacceptable things people, businesses, the police and the government do because they know they can get away with it. In that same edition of Kaieteur News, prominent Berbice lawyer and APNU+AFC Member of Parliament , Charrandas Persaud, had a letter published that was very disturbing.
The connection between this letter and the theme of my Friday column is obvious – the police behaved this way to the MP because they know they can get away with it.
Let’s quote from the missive as contained in the Kaieteur News; “ A young policeman came out of the pickup and stood by the driver’s window and blurted out, ‘You drivin’ all over the road like you drunk’. I immediately said, ‘He was not driving like he is drunk and that is an old line.’
“This young policeman told me to shut the f—up. I responded by saying, ‘I am a Member of Parliament and this man is my driver and he will never drink when he is driving’. This arrogant young punk police said…’PPP ent running things now…he took us into the station where Panday did the necessaries and the result was 00 so we were sent away.
“As we were walking out of the BV Police Station, another young punk kid in uniform blurted out,’ he ain’t no f–ing Member of Parliament, he look like a sku—t. I looked at him and thought of a night in a lockups and said nothing.”
So why did these policemen behave like that? Because they know they can get away with it. Do you think these junior ranks will be investigated? Do you think any senior police rank reading Persaud’s letter is going to act? Persaud’s description is now a forgotten tale. It was read on Friday and it is now a dead issue. Those young policemen will strike again and again. This is the story of unchanging Guyana.
A few Saturdays ago, I came out very early to go on the seawall with my dog. It was about 6 AM. On the Railway Embankment, I saw a parked traffic car, with a senior officer in the vehicle and two junior ranks who had intercepted three lorries. This was near to my home. I passed and certain thoughts ran through my mind so I decided to turn back to observe. As I made the reversal, I saw the lorries leaving.
I stopped the last one and enquired. The driver said the ranks told him trucks aren’t allowed on the Railway Embankment in the morning hours and he said they pointed to a sign to that effect. Immediately I know a shakedown had taken place. That sign was there years ago. The Ministry of Public Works under the PPP and the Ministry of Public Infrastructure under the grand coalition (grand coalition is now a political terminology taken from the era of the American invasion of Iraq) did/do not remove warning signs after road works are completed.
Minister David Patterson instead of criticizing me on television should instruct his personnel to remove the anachronistic sign at the western junction of Young Street and Camp Road that is misleading drivers travelling west on Carifesta Avenue going into Young Street.
The road warning barring lorries from using the Railway Embankment was put up in 2014 when the Liliendaal bridge was being repaired. Please note; this was not as a result of the closure of Railway Embankment at the beginning of 2017 when there was a complete new bridge built at Liliendaal. This sign was put up to stop trucks while the repairs were going on. Since 2014 there are two yellow-painted signs on the Railway Embankment between UG Road and Conversation Tree Road with the words, “Road repairs ahead, no trucks allowed.”
That was three years ago. What those policemen were doing was deceiving truck drivers to get money from them. When I reversed, I saw the trucks being released and quickly the police car drove away. I drove behind them to get the license plate number but I wasn’t going to drive at that speed. So what happens now that I informed the public that those misleading yellow signs are still there?
You think they will be removed? You think the goodly David Patterson will act? Months ago, I pointed to that outdated warning at Young Street but it is still there. Those rogue cops that stop those truck drivers will continue their rotten ways using that very old sign to shake down drivers as they did that morning. They know Guyana is a failed state.
