Mahaica farmer’s murder could have been prevented, if…

Aug 08, 2013 News

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–    detectives   

By Dale Andrews

“Could you imagine people getting murder two minutes from station and they can’t get help from the police?”

The murder of Supply, Mahaica farmer Omadat Persaud could have been prevented had the police been properly equipped to respond.
Persaud was shot dead when bandits invaded his home and robbed his overseas visiting relatives in a brazen attack one month ago.
So far the police have no real clue as to who the perpetrators really are.

Some ranks have admitted that the police must take some of the blame for what took place that night.
The Mahaica Police Station is less than five minutes’ drive from the scene of the crime but the absence of mobility and adequate ranks put paid to any effective response.
“The people even bring vehicle to take police but there was only one rank there and it was a female,” a source told this newspaper.
The first police response to the Mahaica murder was from a mobile patrol based at the Vigilance Police Station, some 12 miles away.
The patrol unit from Cove and John eight miles from Mahaica arrived after, and even then the ranks were delayed by the rain since the vehicle’s wiper was malfunctioning.
Incidentally, the bandits spent about 15 minutes terrorizing their victims.
“Could you imagine people getting murder two minutes from station and they can’t get help from the police?” one of the ranks lamented.
Even the residents were not too complimentary of the police, claiming that ranks are often too slow to respond to reports of crime in the community.
“In de nights is only one or two police does deh in deh. Dey use to gat patrol, now dem hardly gat police. Is only when people play loud music, and beat up dem wife, de police coming quick,” a Mahaica resident declared.
“The Minister would jump on television and tell the nation that they are providing the tools for the police to do the job, but in fact the police are badly ill equipped to deal with crime,” the rank added.
With their seeming inability to effectively deal with the majority of violent crimes under the spotlight, Police Detectives on the East Coast of Demerara have not taken lightly to reports in the press that they have been failing to solve some recent murders which seem to be heading for the cold case file.
The detectives in an exclusive interview with this newspaper said that while they are working diligently on the murders, there are several factors that are working against their effective handling of the numerous cases they have to deal with from day to day.
This newspaper had published that police on the East Coast of Demerara are stumped on a number of murders that attracted the attention of the country, with their brutality and brazenness.
But blaming the police might be a bit unfair given what they have to work with.
For one, the lack of manpower is a big issue that impacts negatively on the force’s inability to effectively tackle the rising crime situation.
One detective on the East Coast of Demerara informed that just as one sits down to deal with one crime another pops up and their attention has to quickly shift.
“No crime is more important than the other, really,” he said.
In Guyana’s case, except for the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters and the main A Division, Detectives in the outer Divisions have to deal with all serious crimes.

There is no separation from murder, robbery, fraud and break and enter. We have to do all,” the detective told this newspaper.
His assertion was backed up by some of his colleagues.
“Even if we are working hard on a murder and a robbery occurs, we have to put everything down and deal with the robbery. And then two more break and enter might come up, all of them we have to deal with,” another detective stated.
Kaieteur News understands that on most days, there are no more than two detectives per police station on the East Coast.
The situation is even worse at nights, with one detective serving an entire district (three stations).
But that is only one piece of the manpower puzzle; the mobile patrols are also understaffed.
And this brings in another inhibiting factor, vehicles.
According to reliable sources, patrolling the East Coast of Demerara is hampered by the lack of mobility; there are simply not enough vehicles to serve the division.
Presently, the East Coast of Demerara is served by only two patrols at a time to cover an area from Turkeyen to Mahaicony.
Even the criminals appear to know this fact.
“They would even come into the station and make frivolous reports just to see how much police on duty,” a rank explained.
Effectively responding to criminal activities on the east coast also has to cater for the terrain and layout of the area.
Most of the roads in the district are in a deplorable condition and this invariably leads to damage to police vehicles pursuing criminals.
“The criminals are very smart. That is why they are a high number of bicycle robberies. These guys could get away at will after committing their robberies,” a detective told this newspaper.
He said that it would appear that not much thought goes into the difficulties they have to endure so that they can provide an acceptable service to Guyana.
The detective said that although they perform a very important function, they are often the ones to be maligned whenever crimes are not solved.
“If I resign and go away, 15 cases including murder will go overboard. That’s how bad this situation is,” the detective said.

 

 

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