CRIME IN BERBICE

Oct 03, 2008 Editorial

Two days ago, this newspaper carried a story of two young men who were captured on the Scottsburg beach, in Berbice, after allegedly attempting a robbery.

The men are reportedly from the city and they are believed to have teamed up with someone from Berbice who has managed to escape.

It is not a novel situation but it is particularly instructive for Berbicians as the Berbice River Bridge nears completion. With the opening of the bridge, there is going to be increased traffic between the county and other parts of the country, and, as part of that movement, will be that of dubious characters.

This is not to say that Berbice does not have its own home-grown crime. There used to be a time during the terrifying crime-wave, when Berbicians held their heads high and were proud to boast that such atrocities that were committed on the East Coast and within the city did not occur in the Ancient County.

They were right, because Berbice was even up to then still a tranquil and peaceful place with limited armed crime.

The situation, however, is fast changing. While the police in ‘B’ Division must be commended for the sterling effort they have made in not only minimising crime but also in solving a number of cases, there are worrying developments within the region.

For one, there is a large pool of unemployed young people who are not finding jobs. While this in itself ought not to lead them to crime, many of the young people of Berbice have, at the same time that they are without jobs, come under bad influence.

Particularly in the towns, there are believed to be many drug houses which have pushed young people into crime just to support addictive habits.

Drug-use is now becoming a serious public health and security concern in Berbice and there needs to be greater attention paid to this problem.

Some time ago, the President of Guyana promised to set up a squad to deal with the sale of drugs within communities.

While most who are engaged in the sale of narcotics are believed to be small-time pushers, the scale of the problem is much larger because this same small scale pushing is leading to large-scale problems within society, including petty theft.

With the opening of the bridge, the region is going to face greater challenges in many areas.
One of the areas will obviously be crime and security.

Traditionally, because most villages are closely knit and because most people know each other within the village, it has always been easy for suspicious characters to be identified and their movements monitored.

The opening of the bridge, a necessary step in the development of Berbice, will complicate the problem since more persons are likely to be traversing the coast.

As such, it is now time for serious consideration to be given to the social controls that need to be put in place so as to ensure that Berbice remains a peaceful and tranquil region.

This needs to be done in a manner that does not compromise the development of Berbice, which is likely to see increased industrialization as an off-shoot of the modernization of the sugar industry.

All stakeholders need to sit and plan for the post-bridge future of Berbice. They need to redouble their efforts at not only rooting out all forms of crime within the region but to also emerge with a comprehensive development plan to deal with the many challenges that will emerge. Indeed, development comes with its own disadvantage.

But the Bridge is not the only access for the criminals that are beginning to plague the community. There is the Corentyne River across which many criminals move either to escape the long arm of the local law or to prey on people in the riverain communities before escaping.

This was the case with the pirates who terrorized the Corentyne fishermen from their base in Suriname until they were caught. They are in custody now awaiting the end of their trial for myriad crimes, including murder.

Lest we forget, there are copy cats who feel that what others do in other parts of the country they could do. These are beginning to emerge in the various parts of the county, most of them in Canje.

The one good thing is that the communities are mobilised to fight crime; the people still rush to their neighbours’ aid and it is this that led to the capture of the two city bandits.

People responded to the cries of the victim and before long they had surrounded the area into which the bandits had attempted to escape.

This is not likely to happen in the city where people do not even know their neighbours and, because of this, Berbice may not be so bad off.

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CRIME IN BERBICE

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