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Ranks were transferred from Berbice to avoid “another Linden” – Brumell
Commissioner of Police Leroy Brumell does not regret transferring all the ranks from the Number 51 Police Station in Berbice.
Brumell, who leaves office next Monday, explained that his decision was done in the interest of public safety, since he did not want the situation in Berbice to escalate to the extent that it could develop into a hostile confrontation between members of the community and the police.
Police Commissioner Leroy Brumell
Brumell had travelled to Berbice immediately after residents there staged a protest following another robbery.
“I don’t regret, because when I saw what was happening, I knew people were spurring it up and I know if I didn’t take control there, we would have gotten another Linden,” Brumell explained in an exclusive interview with this newspaper.
Brumell came in for some criticism for the move, which was done in response to demands made by some Berbicians who had accused police ranks of carrying out a series of armed robberies in the ancient county.
The criticism stemmed from the fact that the removal of the ranks was recommended by Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.
But Brumell maintained that his decision was not influenced by the Minister’s recommendation.
He told Kaieteur News that when he left Georgetown for Berbice, he had no intentions of transferring the ranks.
However, when he arrived at the venue where he met with residents, he was greeted by a “hostile” crowd.
“It was up there that I decided that I was transferring people….While I was talking, no matter what, I was not getting through to these people,” Brumell stated.
It was only after he relented and announced that he was going to transfer the ranks that the residents calmed down.
“When I said, ‘okay, I will transfer the ranks’, the people started to clap!”
“When you see people say the police were robbing, which I know they were not… These kinds of confrontation where people throwing molotov cocktails… people would have been injured, and I did not want that,” the Commissioner explained.
Brumell was asked if the situation had occurred in another section of Guyana, would he have done the same.
He responded, “Yes, as long as I saw there would have been a hostile confrontation and doing that would have solved it, yes.”
According to Brumell, a similar response was taken by the police force in response to the situation at Linden during the unrest there, which saw three persons killed.
“We made a lot of changes in Linden. Many people from Linden we moved and brought to town.”
Brumell pointed out that despite being transferred from Berbice, none of the ranks have left the job.
“I know two ladies came up after and said, ‘the police ain’t robbing, is people setting up people fuh seh that de police robbing’. But I moved my ranks in the interest of the country, and that is one thing that I don’t have regrets about,” Brumell stated.
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