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Three more ranks added to police list of ‘Fallen Heroes’
Commissioner of Police (ag) Seelall Persaud laying his wreath.
The Guyana Police Force (GPF), as part of its 175th anniversary celebration, yesterday morning held a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of 62 policemen who were killed in the line of duty between 1913 and this year.
The ceremony took place at the Monument to Fallen Heroes in the Police Officer’s Mess Compound at the Force’s Eve Leary headquarters.
The programme got underway with the ‘Laying of Wreaths’ by relatives of the 62 fallen policemen.
Relatives were followed by Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, Commissioner of Police (ag) Seelall Persaud and representatives of the various police Divisions and Branches of the Guyana Police Force.
The list of deceased ranks started with Corporal James Ramsey who was killed in 1913 at Plantation Rosehall Canje, Berbice by armed strikers and ends with the Force’s latest loss Corporal Silburn Elias, who was shot and killed earlier this year while trying to arrest a bandit who had escaped from Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
The words of Winston Churchill “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give,” were recited by the Commissioner(ag) Persaud yesterday as he made brief remarks during the ceremony which is held annually around this time.
He said his heart and the hearts of his ranks and officers are deeply moved by what was given by those who laid down their lives defending evil.
Persaud highlighted that there were three new ‘Fallen Heroes’ added to the list. He called the names of Michael Forde and Sherwayne Pantlitz, both of whom were killed last year while attending to the report of the infamous shooting incident at Middle Street, and pointed out Elias as well.
He said that the integrity that motivated “our fallen heroes” to serve and protect is admired.
The Top Cop said that that shows that policing is not just a job but a “higher calling.”
He charged that there be no more names added to the list of ‘Fallen Heroes’, but acknowledged that the way “we run to danger while others run from it will pose a challenged to achieving that.”
Minister Rohee said that the Force pays homage to those who died in the line of duty not merely out of duty or routine but “we do this every year because all of us believe and are convinced that an activity like this is necessary.”
He said that there are a few words in the anthem that say much “service, sacrifice and guard.”
The Minister said that these words must not be taken lightly as they carry significant weight… “not many are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice… many talk but don’t walk, many preach but are not willing to practice, many condemn but are not willing to build. But men of the Force are willing to do this and that makes the Force a strong institution that cannot be removed easily.”
Rohee said that the best homage is to make sure that no more names are added to those engraved “on stones”.
At the end of the ceremony, the relatives of the deceased policemen were invited to breakfast at the Police Officer’s Mess.
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