MANGOES ARE NOT IN SEASON

May 07, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The security services have done a great job in dismantling some of the heavily armed gangs that were creating havoc in Guyana. Where they have failed is in containing minor crime, and it is a failure which is now giving rise to so many terrible incidents of violence in Guyana.
The security services need to be reminded about the broken-windows theory, the very theory that the New York police used to clean up the city.
In the eighties when crime was rampant in the Big Apple, a new approach was taken – one that paid attention to the things which normally we would feel would not make an impact on crime.
Yet it was found that these small misdemeanours such as the painting of graffiti on the walls of trains, something that was not expected to affect overall crime rates, eventually led to a situation where crime on the subway system was reduced.
The broken-windows theory posits that a broken window, if not repaired, can embolden passersby to want to break other windows and eventually to break into the building. Thus, small misdemeanours, left unattended, grow into larger epidemics and eventually become uncontrollable. If fixed, it can lead to a reduction in crime.
This is the crime-theory that this column has been advocating for some time. While the security forces may have in the recent past had their hands full in dealing with the armed criminal insurgency which led to three mass murders in Guyana, there is now growing evidence that other forms of crime are taking root and are resulting in the loss of life, something that is unacceptable in any society.
On Monday last, the head of security of the Guyana Power and Light was cold bloodedly killed while on duty. His killers, we were told, were originally liming in a tree and left to confront the GPL crew which was engaged in removing illegal connections.
From this simple act of loitering, a murder resulted.
In another incident this past week, a man tried to intervene in a quarrel between his friend and another man. The other man stabbed him and he subsequently died. This took place in public.
These are two examples which show how small misdemeanours – loitering and walking with a sharp knife in public – led to the deaths of two innocent persons. It ought not to be.
I am sure that the police will try to find those responsible for these deaths, but I am also sure that unless they begin to address these little things such as loitering in public and walking with dangerous weapons, more and more crimes are going to take place in this country and there will be more deaths.
The problem that the police face is that every time they go on an exercise to search persons malingering on road corners, every time they stop youths and search them for illegal substances and weapons, every time they patrol through certain areas they are accused of harassing and of seeking to criminalize the youths of this country.
This sort of attack on the police is demoralizing and affects them doing their job. Yet the lesson of crime- fighting is that attention has to be paid to some of these little things if the police are going to get on top of crime.
There used to be a time in this country when if you wanted to walk on the roadways with a knife or a cutlass, you had to wrap it up in a sheet of newspaper.
There used to be a time in this country when if the police caught you with a flick-knife, you could be charged and most definitely the knife would be taken away.
Yet today, there are so many persons walking around with all kinds of knives on their person, unafraid and mainly unconscious that they should not be having these weapons on them.
Others, of course, are walking around with more than knives, they have guns on them, illegal weapons and this is why the police have to identify through effective crime-mapping, those areas where crime is rampant, and to confiscate objects which can be used to either rob or injure others in this society.
The police also need to cut down on loitering. We do not need international experience to instruct us about what can result from what is fast becoming a national pastime. We all know when two or three or four persons, with nothing to do, gather together, they are prone to engage in mischief.
They will interfere with girls and may even be tempted to take advantage of the weak. Once they begin to get away with these petty offences, they will become emboldened to go further and this is how crime spirals out of control.
The security services therefore need to begin to tackle the problems of loitering and the large numbers of persons who are walking the streets with knives under the pretext that they are using it to peel mangoes.
Mangoes are not yet fully in season at the moment and these knives in the hands of the aimless can be used to kill and maim.

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