Lawlessness abounds in this society

Dec 21, 2010 Editorial

Lawlessness knows no bounds and when people believe that they can be as lawless as they wish the society must take steps to crush them. Of course, there is the adage, ‘Give a man an inch and he will take a mile.’
The police announced that they would adopt a zero tolerance to explosives. Within recent times people had taken the opportunity to import fireworks. Most of these came from neighbouring Suriname and the profits must have been exorbitant for people to defy the police.
At first, these explosives were the small squibs that made a popping noise that was annoying at best but not too scary because of their very nature. These were largely ignored although they did cause some accidents. They burnt careless children as well as those who were unfortunate to have their colleagues hurl them at the unsuspecting victim.
Then they got bigger — as large as bombs and they exploded with the same ferocity. These were the most annoying. They scared people, caused animals to jump to their death and even set homes and vehicles afire.
They separated fingers from hands and they left many people wishing that they never existed.
At this time of year, these explosives make their presence felt. People detonate them willy nilly. They set them off in crowded places, mostly among people who assemble for some entertainment.
People complained bitterly and the police decided that enough was enough; that they would arrest anyone found with any of these explosives.
Unfortunately, most of the time such pronouncements are not backed up. We have seen cases of police patrols driving past people openly selling these explosives and wondered at the stated zero tolerance. It could be that these police patrols were operating under the pretext that they had special duties that excluded detaining anyone selling explosives.
It must be this level of tolerance that encouraged a member of the nouveau riche to detonate explosives much larger than any that had ever been exploded in Guyana, except by the Guyana Defence Force during fireworks displays.
The early Sunday morning was shattered by these terrific explosions that people were shocked out of their sleep. Many felt that the army was conducting an exercise while others, much closer to the explosion, must have felt that they were under attack.
What was astonishing was that this individual had the gumption to set off these monster explosives in full public view and in a manner that suggested that he had every right and the requisite permission to do so. There were multiple explosions.
Calls to police stations in the city either went unanswered or the person, when questioned about the nature of the explosions, simply said that there were no reports and that the police were unaware of the incident.
However, the police from some parts of the city did respond and what they found suggested that lawlessness had reached unparalleled levels. There were the explosives in full public view and the people setting them off did not even attempt to escape. They were certain that they were duly authorised to perform lawlessly.
The police have seized the explosives and that now raises serious questions about the loopholes in the Guyana Revenue Authority. One can conclude that the explosives were smuggled into Guyana but knowing how people bring all manner of things through the legitimate ports it would not be surprising that these explosives came through the established ports.
We know that people have brought guns into the country through the established ports; we know that people have smuggled even bigger things and were helped to have them cleared.
The mere thought of importing such explosive devices should have been snapped from the time it entered one’s head. But lawlessness tells us that we can do anything. And so we had this massive disruption of public order.
There are going to be more of the same because the police action is often not as consistent as it should. The matter is before the courts and one now awaits the outcome for this blatant breach of the law.

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