Do the officers respect the Commissioner of Police?

Apr 02, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

On Tuesday night, I traveled up to Berbice in Region Six to be the guest on the television interview programme hosted by popular Berbice lawyer Charrandas Persaud. We stayed back after the show to have a curried gilbakka dinner with Charrandas’s family. On our return to Georgetown, it was midnight when we reached the village of Cove and John, East Coast Demerara.
There was a police road block at Cove and John. Under the law, the police cannot stop a vehicle and search it at random. They must have reasonable suspicion. The police cannot see a car coming down the road, with the driver minding his/her business, and without any knowledge whatsoever of criminal involvement by the driver, stop the car and search it. They must have a modicum of knowledge that the occupants are not clean.
We pulled over and I told the officer in charge that his ranks were stopping vehicles at random, none of the ranks including him, had identification tags, there wasn’t the visible presence of a marked police vehicle. I showed them the printed guideline by the Commissioner of Police which was published in the Kaieteur News.
The officer agreed that the road block was improper. The only hitch was that a heated quarrel broke out between Leon Hunt of the Alliance for Change and a junior rank, because the rank was laughing throughout the entire episode and it got Hunt angry.
That was that. The police acknowledged they were doing an act that was improper and they withdrew. But I know the Guyana Police Force disrespects the very laws that empower them so I did something twenty-five minutes later and caught the police red-handed.
At about half the hour past midnight, from my home, I rang the Cove and John police station to inquire if there is a road block in progress. The young lady said, “Yes Sir.” I then said, “Madam, are you sure it is going on right at this moment? “ The answer was, “Yes Sir.” I asked to speak to the Officer in Charge of the station.
What happened is that after we left, the road block personnel came out again. A female voice said that Sergeant Holder is in the washroom and I should call back. She requested my name. I gave it and that was a big blunder on my part. Ten minutes elapsed and Holder was still in the washroom. Twenty minutes elapsed and Holder was still in the washroom.
I suggested to the police on the other end of the line to go into the washroom to see if Holder had fainted or may have collapsed. She told me that she is like Holder; they stay for a long time in the washroom. I insisted that I want to speak to the person who has jurisdiction over the ranks manning the road block because the road block was being conducted in violation of police procedures.
None of the ranks I spoke to volunteered to give me their names except one who said her name was Kissoon. She was just mocking me. There is no female rank that works at Cove and John station by the name of Kissoon. After lengthy exchanges, another rank suggested I speak to Inspector Gravesande at Sparendaam. The time was moving to one o’clock in the morning.
I got hold of Inspector Gravesande. He said the Cove and John ranks informed him of my complaints and on hearing that he immediately called Cove and John and disbanded the road block. He agreed the ranks at the station should have proffered their names.
This is the second road block intervention I have made and have published in my columns since the Kaieteur News boldly carried the instructions of the Commissioner of Police. Did the Commissioner of Police con the nation when he made the announcement, meaning that he has no intention to stop these indecent road blocks but just uttered his words to get some public relations mileage?
Or is it that the ranks have no respect for their chief of police and will continue to stop citizens at uncivilized hours without adhering to the clearly laid-out guidelines? Which one is it? The Commissioner also said that traffic ranks can no longer do routine stops of vehicles. That, he said, has been discontinued.
This was in the newspapers. I see routine traffic stops every day since the Commissioner laid down his edict. These ranks at the roadblocks do not put on their name tags because they are doing their usual shake-down. Traffic cops will continue the routine checks because that is how they collect their “small piece.”

Latest News

Do the officers respect the Commissioner of Police?

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

CWI’s Shallow, Bascombe circumspect amid two-tier Test system

Guyana to play Suriname, Grenada in “Nations...

Guyana Football Federation announces opening of...

West Indies unveil powerful 17-man squad for O50s...

Seven Regional Champions to vie for direct...

Kennard Memorial Turf Club expresses sincere...

Features/Columnists

The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation

Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves

Renegotiation – the latest Guyanese curse

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Do the officers respect the Commissioner of Police?

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]