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The plight of the society

Nov 24, 2012 Editorial

There must be a lot wrong with the society. It would seem that the last few generations were left to grow on their own, exposed to all the wicked elements in the society because many of them have no values, no regard for human life and certainly, no fear of retribution.
Such a comment may seem unreasonably harsh, especially when we live in a society that holds itself as a democracy and a decent place to live; a society that objects when the media highlight the despicable things in the society and cause those in the Diaspora to take note and reserve their decision about returning to the land of their birth.
Indeed, there are other countries where dastardly crimes are committed but from the media one would never garner such information. This is the case in those islands that rely on tourism for their livelihood. Crimes are either not reported or hidden so deep in the pages that one is likely to miss the information.
But in Guyana, how can one hide the fact that a man who presents himself as a stranger would enter a woman’s home which she shares with her husband and children, beat the woman, douse her with an inflammable substance and only avoids setting her afire because she manages to escape?
How can a man justify barging into the home of a woman who ended a relationship with him and started another with another man? The man hacked off the woman’s arm and killed her paramour as he lay in the bed.
Some would say that it is a crime of passion but we say that it is wanton disregard for life and a case of refusing to accept that every individual has a right to his or her decisions.
How can one hide the fact that there are men who prowl the streets looking for crimes of opportunity and when these present themselves, the men act like barbarians, shooting their victims and then simply walking away to spend the loot in a manner as though there is no tomorrow?  This was the case of the Chinese national who had just closed his business. Today there are fears that he would be paralysed at the age of twenty-four.
An office Assistant attached to Kaieteur News was similarly shot because the young perpetrators wanted his motorcycle. They were not content to rob him.
We have women who display marks of violence suffered because their partner simply lost his temper over some trivial matter.
Had these people been acculturalised by a society that is law abiding, then these things would not have happened. It goes without saying that most of the criminals come from depressed areas or those societies where people place little value to child rearing.
Today, we have the case of the police preparing for heightened criminal activity. They expect the criminals to come out in their numbers. There was a time in Guyana when the most people had to worry about were the pickpockets. There were a few attacks on people who frequented dark lonely stretches of roadways. These days the police expect attacks in the broad daylight and in the presence of crowds.  The criminals are the ones who have no fear of retribution.
Desmond Hoyte introduced draconian legislation to fight drug trafficking. The passage of time has made the financial penalty irrelevant because devaluation has taken its toll. But there is a clause in the law that allows the judge or magistrate to apply a fine that is three times the value of the drug in relation to the jail sentence. If that is done then we are certain that we would see a decline in drug trafficking.
There should also be draconian legislation for those offences that threaten to reduce the society to a point of anarchy. The laws are not stringent enough and even if they are, the police more often than not do not conduct proper investigations. The result is that the criminals almost always escape deserved penalty.
The society needs a revamp and it had better come now.

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