Some may take the law into their own hands

Jun 24, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Police Force never seems to dumbfound me. Wednesday night at 20:56hrs I received a cell call from a friend stating that he had been involved in a vehicular accident at Camp and Hadfield Streets, Stabroek.
My friend was riding a motorcycle north along Camp Street when the driver of a hire car failed to stop at a sign at Hadfield Street.
This resulted into a collision, the car slamming into the motorcyclist and knocking him several feet along the road. His motorcycle was damaged and I later learnt that an x-ray revealed that he suffered from a broken rib and other injuries.
Upon arriving on the scene on the night of the accident I telephoned the Brickdam Police and reported the matter and requested that the police intervene. After waiting for half an hour on the road I called again to be told that there was no vehicle available.
The injured man then called the Eve Leary police station. After waiting another half an hour I decided to dial 911. I got through on the third attempt. The matter was reported and I was told that police officers would have visited the scene. They never came despite me calling several other times.
Now the motorcyclist did not want to leave the scene since he wanted the police intervention so that the proper records of the accident could be recorded and his motorcycle could have been repaired without a hassle.
The hire car driver did not flee since many persons saw the accidents and his number plate was also recorded. However, notwithstanding additional calls to the Brickdam police station I was told that the spot should be marked off and the injured man should bring his seriously damaged motorcycle to the station since there was no police rank to visit the scene. This is after more than two hours of waiting.
Now if I had called to say that a man had shot and killed someone on the road I am sure that miraculously police would have appeared.
However, although some law abiding citizens would want to remain within the confines of the law and do what is procedurally right, these occurrences underscore why persons would want to flout the law and take justice into their own hands.
Instead of the law enforcement officer seeking to resolve and prevent what could eventually become a criminal act by citizens because of lack of support from the police, it appears as if the police would rather deal with the after effects.
Now tell me if the police cannot assist when they are needed to whom must I turn?
Then when citizens lose respect for the law enforcement, there is a natural breakdown for authority in whatever form, which eventually causes a deterioration of society since injustice forces citizens to feel justified to take the law into their own hands.
Rabindra Rooplall Jr

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