Why is the police force being reduced to this comical level?

Dec 17, 2010 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I received a call from Mark Benschop at 21.00 hours Wednesday evening stating that three police vehicles with personnel were outside his home. Dale Andrews, senior reporter for this newspaper accompanied me. In charge of operations was chief of Ruimveldt Police Station, and Runner-up Best Cop in ‘A’ Division Superintendent Rishi Das.
On inquiry, Das told me that he would like to ask Benschop some questions at the Brickdam police station where other senior ranks had some interest in speaking to Mr. Benschop.
The reason was the alleged traffic dislocation at the Le Repentir dumpsite. The police are contending that in blocking the entrance to the dumpsite, Mr. Benschop disrupted traffic. I told Das that nowhere in the world, three truck loads of police officers would visit a citizen on one of the most minor traffic violations.
I politely told Das that he should invite Benschop to the station the next day. Benschop agreed to accompany Das to the police station but wanted to have someone move his 11-year-old son. Das agreed to wait for Benschop’s help to come. She had to be brought from the East Coast.
Unable to locate her, Das and his men still decided to wait. Benschop also moved to contact his lawyer.
Mr. Das and his men spent four hours outside Benschop’s home and left without him because Benschop couldn’t find the person he wanted for his son.
In a country burdened with a horrific crime rate, how could the police spend so much time outside the house of an alleged traffic violator? And for one of the most inconsequential traffic sins – creating a traffic jam. I spoke to Das three times requesting that he call the waiting officers and have Benschop report to the police station the next day. As it turned out, this is exactly what happened.
Why is the Guyana Police Force being made to look so ridiculous in the eyes of the nation?
A group of policemen, including anti-crime units, is stalemated outside the dwelling of a citizen for a minor traffic breach. Isn’t that comical? When these things happen, the police image takes a beating. More importantly, citizens laugh at the men and women in uniform and disrespect grows. I ask citizens to reflect on what is happening to the Guyana Police Force.
Look at the time those units waited in front of Benschop’s home. They could have been in service elsewhere.
Benschop appeared in traffic court and was put on self bail. After court, I dropped him home, only to find that the police were there to tow away his vehicle. They tied it to the tow-truck but because the steering wheel was locked, the SUV couldn’t move. They went away. At the time of writing (yesterday at 14:00 hours) the police were yet to return.
We are getting from the comical to the dangerous. Tomorrow, Mr. Ballyram (one name only) will be in traffic court to answer three charges instituted since July when Benschop and I hired him to transport to Georgetown, protesting schoolchildren from West Bank Demerara to demonstrate against the police shooting to death of their school colleague.
Given three charges, Mr. Ballyram was put on bail, but the Brickdam police refused to release his Canter-truck. We moved to the court and after three days in the Brickdam compound, the vehicle was released by an order of the Chief Justice.
Are we witnessing a repeat of the Ballyram nastiness? If Benschop is charged, why do the police want his vehicle? If I drive down a one-way the wrong way and I am ticketed, why would the police want to impound my vehicle? So the police could just impound a citizen’s property as arbitrarily as with Ballyram and now Benschop?
So should I expect my computer to be removed from my home after the President’s libel suit against me? Are the police going to seize the printing press of Kaieteur News because that was the machine used to publish the newspaper that resulted in the libel?
We are surely on macabre territory. I have so often warned the Guyanese people of a fascism that has crept up on us. Why did the police try to seize Mr. Benschop’s vehicle? He was charged for an offence. Under which law can his vehicle be impounded? The charge is for traffic disturbance not death by dangerous driving.
Yesterday, it was Ballyram. Today it is Mark Benschop. Who is it tomorrow? I get cussed down all the time by the President and his underlings. But who is right and who is wrong? Today Mr. Ballyram is in court. Yesterday, Benschop was in court. Who would be next?

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Why is the police force being reduced to this comical level?

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