IT COULD HAVE BEEN YOU!

Apr 16, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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It could have been you or someone you know. Instead it was Henry Greene who faced allegations that he had forcible sex with a woman.
Imagine if instead of the Commissioner of Police, it was you. Imagine you were the person who was accused of rape when all along you were contending that the sex you had with your accuser was consensual.
Imagine if after the allegation was made against you, an investigation was ordered. Imagine that investigation found that the actions of the complainant were questionable. Would you like if despite this finding, charges were recommended against you?
Imagine also if the same investigative report observed that the complainant’s story was riddled with inconsistencies and that because of these inconsistencies it could not be concluded definitively that she was raped. Would you, the accused in such circumstance be pleased if charges were still filed against you for rape?
Imagine if your accuser had said that her doctor had advised her that an infection she had was caused by the condom used during the alleged rape. Imagine if that fact was discredited. Would you like if despite this you were still charged for rape?
I doubt whether you would. No one should be charged when there is insufficiency of evidence, lack of credible evidence or if the star witness lacks credibility.
Yet there are many out there who would like to see the Commissioner of Police lynched on the basis of a complaint that was found to be riddled with inconsistencies, actions that were questionable and a complainant who had gone to the Commissioner to seek his assistance in relation to a matter in which she was under investigation for an alleged wrongdoing. Is this someone that the prosecution would wish to place on a witness stand?
There are many persons out there who want to see the back of the Commissioner of Police. For some of these persons it is all about their own credibility. Some of them have to be seen as demonstrating that they take the issue of women’s rights seriously because this is the business they are in and if they are not seen as being militant then the credibility of their organizations is going to be called into question.
There are others with political axes to grind and others who are acting out of pure defensiveness in order to deflect criticism from their own inconsistent stance on other matters concerning women.
And of course there are those with political axes to grind against the Commissioner?
But all of these persons need to ask themselves: what if it were them who were being similarly accused? Would they have liked to have had to proceed in leave while an investigation took place?
Details of the investigative report into the allegations of rape against the Commissioner of Police were published in yesterday’s Stabroek News. Based on that report alone, no charges should have been proffered against the Commissioner of Police.
Why charges were recommended against him is another issue and one which needs to be addressed because based on the investigative report alone there was little chance of a successful prosecution. So the question is, why were charges recommended?
The courts itself have found that there was no rational basis for the charge.
Imagine then that all of this had happened to you or someone you know. Imagine that charges were recommended against you when in fact there was no rational basis for the charge. Would you be pleased by this? How would you have felt?
Imagine having to be locked up for years on remand while awaiting trial on the basis of evidence which the investigators themselves deemed to have been riddled with inconsistencies and in which the actions of your accuser was described as questionable. Imagine you losing your job, your income and your family having to suffer all because of allegations which the investigators deemed could not have been substantiated. How fair would this have been to you? You would have lost years of your life, your career would have been disrupted and you made to suffer because of this. And if you were in poor health, your heart may fail you.
Yet this is what many in Guyana are proposing. They want the Commissioner to face charges when the investigating team failed to conclude that there was rape.
Having failed to have the Commissioner of Police prosecuted, there are now calls for him to be removed. But what about the suffering that this sickly man has had to endure and which must have taken a toll on his health?
What about the possibility that this man was setup? What about the possibility of the Commissioner being the victim here? How come no one is asking if there was a political angle to the accusations against the Commissioner?
Instead we have persons with no locus standi approaching the Police Complaints Authority and the Office of Professional Responsibility demanding that the Commissioner be investigated for professional misconduct.
Are these persons who are writing letters going to give the evidence of the alleged misconduct? Not only can none of these two offices investigate the Commissioner for misconduct but even if they could, they could not proceed on the basis of letters from individuals or groups with no connection to the matter.
If the Commissioner of Police is to be investigated for professional misconduct, then the complainant will have to file such a report and the matter would then have to be referred to a tribunal.
But any such hearing would also be obligated to examine the basis on which the complainant originally sought the assistance of the Commissioner. And this may open a can of worms.

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