THE POLICE FORCE NEEDS TO MODERNIZE ITS INTERROGATION METHODS

Nov 03, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A man came up to me in the streets and said, “When lawyer crying in Guyana, you know that things are not right” Another man said to me, “When my mother died, I did not cry; when my father died, I shed no tears; but when I saw that photograph in Saturday’s Kaieteur News, water come to my eyes. “

The Peeper understands that it is not only lawyers that cried for the teenager who was tortured while in police custody. Even doctors who are accustomed to seeing terrible injuries are said to have been moved to tears when they saw the injuries to the genital area of that baby-faced child.

It breaks your heart to know that a human being could do this to another human being. This was no roughing up.

This child was badly burnt. This child suffered what appears to be third degree burns to his private parts. Raw flesh can be seen, which suggests that this child may have been subject to more than one dousing with methylated spirits.

And guess what? The police are said to be vigorously looking for the persons who took out the pictures and brought it to this newspaper.

Well if they do find the persons that did this, they should immediately promote them, because it shows that within the Guyana Police Force there are still persons with humane qualities who do not subscribe to official torture.

Why bother with who gave Kaieteur News the footage? Why not pursue with greater vigour all those who had knowledge and did nothing about the torture of the suspect? The government needs to act and appoint a commission of inquiry, because it would be adding insult to injury, literally, if only a constable and a corporal were brought to book over what was done to this teenager. Will the government be satisfied with this outcome?

The government will be judged by its response to this matter. While the government does not sanction such conduct, it must be held responsible for the response to such a situation. This is all the more reason why it should move towards a commission of inquiry that would not just address this case but the whole issue of methods of interrogation by the police.

It seems to me that there is now a need in each police station for an interrogation room with video cameras so that the interrogation process can be filmed and thus aid in the reduction of methods of extracting – methods which conform to modern day standards.

What is needed is for written transcripts to be taken of police interrogations so as to avoid all these trials within trials which have to take place, to ensure that statements rendered by suspects are free and voluntary. This is what it may take to ensure that such torture does not raise its ugly head again within the police force.

Just recently we heard the President of Guyana speak about modernizing agriculture. Well what about taking local interrogations out of the Stone Age? What use is it to repair police lockups and make them more fit for detaining human beings? If torture like what was experienced by this child occurs, then every police station should have an ambulance, so that when the interrogations are finished the suspect can be rushed to Intensive Care.

Just the other day, people were satirizing about being locked up in the Brickdam Police Station. Now, if given the option of a night in the Brickdam lockups or a few hours under interrogation at Leonora, the choice would be obvious. People are going to be afraid to go to police stations. Last Sunday, I saw a traffic cop stop a minibus. The traffic cop’s motorcycle was placed in front of the bus, no doubt to prevent the vehicle from driving away.

The minibus driver did not seem to want to pull over to the side of the road and thus the traffic rank had to make a maneuver to prevent the bus from moving forward. Thus, the rank rightly blocked the path of the bus.

I showed a friend what was happening and questioned why the bus driver was not cooperating. The friend turned to me and said, “Boy, you don’t know if that bus driver is being threatened with being taken to Leonora Police Station.”