Latest update January 24th, 2025 6:10 AM

Guyana's largest selling daily and New York's most popular weekly

Latest News

Dark Crime Clouds

Sep 15, 2010 Editorial

As the reports of escalating crime dominate the front pages of our newspapers (the independent ones at least) the ordinary citizen can be forgiven for lapsing into the malapropism of the baseball great Yogi Berra – “It’s like déjà vu all over again!” But any smile that the witticism may elicit has to be a very sardonic one indeed. Our nation has endured a decade of crime that has made us question some of the most enduring images of our nation – especially that of our easy affability and safe communities. Many do not believe that we can take much more.
Despite the Minister of Home Affairs and the Commissioner of Police trying to make comforting noises by trotting out statistics to show that “serious” crimes are not spiking from that of the last decade, one cannot fail to mark the scepticism – and fear – of the man and woman in the street. The last decade’s figures, after all, marked a frightening upsurge over that of the previous decade (1400+ murders versus 1100). This year we are on course to surpass the murder rate of 2002 – the year of the Prison Escapees – which, let us not forget, was the highest in the entire history of our country. Imagine that.
During the bad old colonial days, our murder rate was just around 5 per 100,000. Our present murder rate of between 15-19 (which grabs most people’s attention – for obvious reasons) is at least three times that of the US – a statistic that the US takes pains to inform its citizens about. No wonder some are clamouring for Guyana to be re-colonised. As we well know, many have decided that if the mountain won’t come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain: today there are at least as many Guyanese (with their descendants) living in Britain, Canada and the US, as there are in Guyana. That is quite a mountain.
The depletion of the very best and brightest of our human resource has been only one of the effects of our burgeoning crime wave. There have also been affects. Those of us that have remained behind (or been left behind, with our papers in process) have evidently been irretrievably morally callused. Witness the upsurge in what the police have seen it fit to define as “disorderly” murders – especially in the interior.
Our hinterland was literally a backwater where very little untoward ever occurred: not any more. We know that there has been an upsurge in gold mining activity – but that alone does not explain the shocking “Wild West” numbers.
There are the drugs and guns that seem to go hand in hand. Few Guyanese are so naïve to doubt the assertions that Guyana has become a transshipment conduit for drugs to the northern markets.
Even the small-time busts at the airport offer a hint of the trafficking, which is widely conceded to be the tip of a rather large iceberg.
During the 2002 carnage, drugs and politics became intertwined in a deadly melange: “execution” became an official category of murder. Since then the free availability of guns has spilled over into even the execution (pun intended) of every-day crimes. Robbery under arms is now the rule rather than the exception. What has been especially worrying to the average citizen recently, however, is the return of the trademark “execution-style”  drug-linked killing. Is the political nexus in the offing?
The admission by the Commissioner of Police that he had details of the drug deal gone sour, that precipitated the latest bloodbath, but could do nothing about preventing it is not surprising. With the quantitative and qualitative changes in the crime scenario in our country, one would have assumed that appropriate changes would have been implemented in our crime-fighting outfits – especially the police force. Not so. There has been a lot of talk, and a lot of money spent, but to no effect. How can there be any change without a change of strategy?
In the meantime, the dark crime clouds gather ever more ominously. It would appear that a hard rain is about to fall.

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | January, 20th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

West Indies U19 Women secure first win, advance to Super Six with victory over Malaysia

West Indies U19 Women secure first win, advance to Super Six with...

Jan 24, 2025

SportsMax – The West Indies U19 Women’s team clinched their first win of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup, defeating hosts Malaysia by 53 runs to advance to the Super Six round. After a...
Read More
“We will have a similar approach”

“We will have a similar approach”

Jan 24, 2025

Sam, Fernandes outshine competition at GCF/Moo Milk National U12 chess tourney

Sam, Fernandes outshine competition at GCF/Moo...

Jan 24, 2025

Ramzan, Fraser pilot Demerara U15 to strong win over East Coast U17

Ramzan, Fraser pilot Demerara U15 to strong win...

Jan 24, 2025

Dave West Indian Imports gets Everest Cricket Club’s renovations off the mark

Dave West Indian Imports gets Everest Cricket...

Jan 24, 2025

Interim leadership agreed to dissolve GCF executive issues

Interim leadership agreed to dissolve GCF...

Jan 24, 2025

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Freedom of speech is our core value at Kaieteur News. If the letter/e-mail you sent was not published, and you believe that its contents were not libellous, let us know, please contact us by phone or email.

Feel free to send us your comments and/or criticisms.
Contact: 624-6456; 225-8452; 225-8458; 225-8463; 225-8465; 225-8473 or 225-8491.
Or by Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]