A case of failed monitoring

Sep 09, 2010 Editorial

It would seem that police action is often at odds with what is uttered, not that there is anything unusual about this since in many cases the police are often called on to act without a script. In cases of protests and street demonstrations the police are trained to act in a certain way. However, when random crimes are committed the police have no set response. They must respond in a manner they perceive to be the most appropriate.
In recent times there have been murders, many of them domestic. There have been some due to unruly situations but quite a few resulted from criminal acts such as robberies and drug-related killings. That the Police Commissioner could actually accept that a recent execution of five people was drug related tells the story of information flowing into the police criminal investigations department and perhaps only being duly noted.
A few years ago, there were even more killings, most of which have been attributed to Shaheed Roger Khan who is now serving a long sentence in the United States. In the wake of Khan’s trial in the United States it transpired that Khan was a major player in the local drug industry and that he killed those who either opposed him or dared to cross his path for the wrong reason. The political opposition and the human rights bodies placed the total at about 200.
It soon became an open secret that a gang dubbed the Phantom killers was rampant. The police got to know some of them and later, some ranks even became part of the killer gang. There were arrests that went nowhere. In cases where there were prosecutions the matters collapsed because people were afraid to testify.
Not much has changed because by his own admission the police commissioner said that the force keeps tabs on the criminal elements. However, he cannot do anything to any of them unless they are suspects in some criminal activity. And even if they do, no one is prepared to talk to the police unless they or some relative fall foul of the criminal.
About a year ago when the government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, acknowledged that the deportees had introduced a new level of crime to Guyana the decision was that everyone would be monitored. But there were simply not enough people to monitor them. In the end since there were different categories of deportees the decision was taken to focus on the criminal deportees.
It became mandatory that deportees report to the police station in their communities but in Guyana some things are easier said than done. We have a reputation for starting or implementing systems but failing to continue them. The police did nothing when the deportee failed to report and pretty soon he or she simply disappeared.
Officials recognized that some of the deportees were virtual strangers to Guyana and these were the ones who simply gravitated to the criminal underground. Commissioner Greene contends that Christopher Gordon was one such. He had been deported on a drug conviction. He was one of the five executed in the Turkeyen area.
But his case pales into insignificance when one considers that the police were aware that another victim, Steve Jupiter, called Steve man, was known to the [police as an extortionist, as one who transported drugs and as one who accept payments for executions, the likes of which he himself suffered.
He should have been one of the people under almost constant surveillance. The police never charged him although they did arrest him from time to time on simple charges. Here is a man the police say is a killer but they simply did not have the evidence to place him before the courts. And knowing his trade as a hit-man they did not keep him under close surveillance. That is shoddy police work.
One must wonder whether the police have made it a fine art to place all manner of crimes on the dead. For the head of the force to know so many things about an individual and not be able to nail him on even one charge is a sad situation. How many others are known to the police but are allowed to continue as usual is not known. Guyana recently passed legislation paving the way for electronic surveillance. We surely are not using it. We are also not monitoring known criminals. This is why many crimes remain unsolved.

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