UNLAWUL PROTESTERS SHOULD BE ARRESTED

Oct 13, 2012 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The police looked clumsy. There they were on the Agricola Public Road, lined up in formation, transparent protective anti-riot shields held in front of them while a small bunch of no more than ten persons pelted bricks, fire sticks and abuse their way.
This could not have been deemed a protest. This was a small ragged group of youths, some with machetes raised ominously on the police. The police looked ridiculous facing off in full riot gear, with this small gang of violent young men besieging a main thoroughfare.
Surely, the training of the police must have included how to deal with small gangs like this. The police looked as if they were facing off with hundreds of protesters. Instead, it was a handful of youths who cut off a major public road and held the police in check gear for hours.
The police should have been able to subdue these youths, arrest them and cart them off to the lockups where they should have been charged for blocking a main road. That tens of thousands of innocent persons were made to endure great hardships simply because of the unlawful actions of a handful of young men makes the police force look ineffective.
How can this have been allowed to happen? Apart from a group of persons watching on from a balcony of a house on the public road and cheering wildly every time a flame or stone was thrown in the direction of the police line, there was no massive support for this group of young men.
This was no mass protest. It was a group of renegade youths laying siege to a major thoroughfare. These were not the actions of any political party. These were the actions of a mob.
It was embarrassing, shocking and disgraceful that such an insignificant group could have held the East Bank of Demerara under cordon. The police force needs to answer for its ineffectiveness in subduing and arresting those involved.
No police force should employ excessive force. Neither should it be portrayed as weak. Yet weakness is precisely what was on display on Thursday last on the East Bank. The police appeared weak and helpless. It was even reported that the water cannon malfunctioned.
The lawlessness had begun long before the incidents on the Agricola Public Road. It had begun in front of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court when the police decided to transport an accused charged for the murder of an Agricola youth. The police allowing the accused to sit in the cab became the pretext for a demonstration which involved persons squatting in front of the wagon transporting prisoners.
These actions were unlawful. They posed a threat to national security because a break-out of persons who were being transported to the prisons could have taken place. Yet the police made no arrests of those who were engaged in unlawful actions in front of the Magistrates’ Courts.
This is quite in contrast to what can occur if someone can temporarily park in a manner that obstructs the free flow of traffic. You can bet your bottom dollar that if that happens, traffic ranks are going to be quickly on the scene and ready to issue you with a charge. But in a high-security situation in which prisoners are being transported, the van transporting the prisoners was blocked and no arrests were made.
This is totally unacceptable and it is hoped that it is still not too late for the police to take action to bring to book those who were involved in the unlawful acts outside of the Magistrates’ Court and on the Agricola Public Road a few hours later.
The latter blocking was intended to waylay persons and vehicles. It is not certain whether in the course of the restraint demonstrated by the police on Thursday evening on the Agricola Public Road, if any police photographer was on hand taking footage of those who were involved in stoning the police. If such footage is available it should be examined so that those involved can be identified, arrested and charged for their unlawful actions.
One of the lessons of last year’s unrest in London was that the authorities were able to arrest and charge over 1200 persons. No excessive force was used in these arrests but they did ensure that the message got through that unlawful action would not be tolerated. The arrests and charges sent a strong signal that such lawlessness will be dealt with seriously.
Guyana needs such an approach to a situation such as what developed last Thursday.
Guyana has gone down that road before and the consequences were tragic. People do not have a right to engage in criminal actions under the pretext of protests. People also do not have the right to engage in unlawful protests.
Those who did so in front of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts and on the Agricola Public Road should be brought to justice in the same way as they are demanding justice for the youth that was shot and killed in Agricola in September.

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