Latest update April 28th, 2026 12:30 AM
An inquiry is now all the more necessary
However reprehensible is an act of torture, the attacks on the High Court, a school and a police station cannot be a justifiable response to such an atrocity. It can never be.
While so far a direct nexus has not been established between the torture of the young man and the incidents of early yesterday morning, there is no doubt that there is an indirect link between the two incidents.
The history of this country has been as such that so long as the police force comes under criticism there are criminals who seek to test the will of the police to take advantage of any indecisiveness and lack of public support precipitated by any crisis between the police and the wider society.
We have seen this pattern in the past especially during times of political upheaval when the police force is divided and often under attack for enforcing the law. On these occasions, criminals seek to take advantage of the crisis within the police and they wreck havoc on the lives of citizens.
It may not be directly related, but it is not coincidental that in the midst of the Guyana Police Force coming under widespread condemnation over the treatment of a murder suspect, there was a brazen daylight robbery in the heart of the city, followed by early morning attacks on a school, the High Court and a police station during which it is understood that at least two persons were injured. Either a criminal gang or a terrorist movement is testing the will of the Guyana Police Force.
It is precisely because certain actions of the police can given rise to this brazenness that it is important that the authorities act swiftly in implementing measures aimed to reconciling the Guyana Police Force with the rest of the population. Whatever wrong renegade cops may have done, this cannot become an indictment of the entire police force nor can it justify the violence of yesterday morning. This column joins in condemning the attacks on the school, the police and the courts.
The police force has an obligation to take steps to win back the confidence of the people after the fallout from the torture of that kid. The police have begun to take action. They have launched an investigation, persons were to be charged yesterday and training sessions are going to be organised for police ranks.
These measures, however, are insufficient to wipe out a culture of abuse that has obviously taken root within the force and which threatens to erode public confidence in this most important institution of the State.
There is a need to address, fundamentally, the interrogation methods employed by the police. This recent charge of torture is not an isolated development. There have been hundreds of court cases over the years in which the admissibility of confession statements has been questioned.
This high incidence of these trials within trials is a clear pointer that there is a problem with crime solving.
There is no reason why the government cannot at this stage accommodate a commission of inquiry into police methods of interrogation. The government may, given the fact that the police have already started an investigation into the charges of torture, given that by now persons may have already appeared before the Courts, be disinclined to launch a commission of inquiry into the torture of that child.
But the government should seriously consider the wider appeal for an investigation which would hopefully pronounce on the checks and balances within the system which would guard against torture.
Do not let us fool ourselves into believing that what happened with this teenager is an aberration. No, it represents a symptom of a deeper malaise within the police force one that has to be changed through a revision of the institutional culture. A separate commission of inquiry into this specific aspect may help in bringing about lasting changes in the way the police force treat with suspects.
And this is why I urge all those who have come out with statements calling for an independent commission of inquiry to use their influence to move the government in the direction of an inquiry into methods of interrogations and the managerial checks and balances necessary to guard against abuse of the interrogation process.
An inquiry will help revise the entrenched culture within the Guyana Police Force and thus allow for greater public confidence, something that is very much needed if the police force is not to be overrun by the criminal elements that rained terror in the city yesterday morning.
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