The police is a lost cause
May 06, 2019 , Kaieteur News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...ice-is-a-lost-cause/
Last week, there were three murders during home invasions. A pensioner was found dead, with stab wounds, at his home in Springlands.
A mechanic in Parika was shot fatally to the head during what is believed to be a robbery. And a shopkeeper in Albouystown was strangled to death after bandits invaded her home.
Yesterday, a video made rounds on social media showing three young men running away from the scene of a crime after robbing a foreigner of what appears to be a suitcase.
Another one last week showed a young lady being robbed in front of Bishop’s High School in broad daylight.
The cause of death is yet unknown of a 60 year old woman whose decomposed body was found in trench. A family was brutalised by bandits who invaded their home last Tuesday at Letter Kenny, Berbice.
Crime is out of control. Yet, the Minister of Public Security has said that Guyana is not in a bad state. What can be worst?
It is true that homicides in Trinidad and Tobago are higher than in Guyana. But most of those deaths are either gang or drug related deaths. In the case of Guyana, the three persons killed last week were all victims of what appears to be robberies. And we should be ashamed of comparing ourselves with other regional crime hot spots.
The government is making useless excuses because it does not know how to solve the problem. No government, PNC,PPP/C or APNU+AFC, for that matter have managed to come up with a workable plan to combat crime in Guyana.
The government is fighting a losing battle. The Police Force, on whom they are relying is a lost cause. The police can no longer protect citizens but neither do citizens have the means, or it is advisable, for them to attempt to protect themselves.
The new changes in the police force have not had the desired impact. Perhaps it would have been better if the President had stuck with David Ramnarine as Commissioner. He was doing a far better job than the present leadership.
By the time, the reform process within the Guyana Police Force is completed; it would have had zero impact. Foreign experts have proven ineffective in bringing about changes in the Force.
All the monies, which the British government is pumping into security reform is going to go down the drain. These projects end up paying foreign nationals a great deal of money for consultancies, which produce reports but little results.
The government is overwhelmed. The police are overwhelmed. The public is overwhelmed. Guyana has become unsafe. Life is cheap; bandits have the upper hand.
Guyana is a lawless country. The prisoners burnt down the main prison in the city. During the inferno, a silly decision was taken to place the inmates in the prison sports club opposite the jail until arrangements could be made to move them. The prisoners looted the bar and then burnt down the entire structure.
And guess, what? Not a single person has been held accountable for the inferno or for the destruction of the sports club in what was the worst jail-riot in the English speaking Caribbean. Only a few months earlier, 18 prisoners were incinerated when fires were set in the said Camp Street Prison.
The government does not have the answers to the crime problem. They cannot deal with it. The Guyana Police Force is too disorganised, incompetent and corrupt to make any serious dent on crime.
The police have their hands full. Each day, the police are being overwhelmed with a large volume of minor offences – persons threatening one another; petty thieves, fights, minor assaults and battery, persons found with small amounts of marijuana, etc. The police hardly have the breathing room to address the major offences.
Foreign help will not make a difference. The United States and Britain are more interested in stemming the narcotics trade than in helping to reduce criminality within Guyana’s borders.
They know that trying to reform the Guyana Police Force is like trying to convert the devil. It is not going to happen.
The situation is quite hopeless. Citizens are playing a game of luck and chance. Each one of them is hoping that the next day it will not be there turn to get robbed or beaten or murdered.
This is the state to which Guyana has become because crime has been encouraged for far too long and has become endemic.
There is too much crime in Guyana. People are stealing water and electricity from the government; children are stealing things from other children in school; workers are bleeding the government dry; corruption is rife, consumers are being shortchanged with weight when they buy goods in the markets; the roads have become unsafe and dangerous.
Today will not be any better. By tomorrow, the newspapers will be reporting on some serious criminal matter. Of that, you can be certain.
What you cannot be sure of is whether you will be the victim.
