The politicization of crime creates unreasonable expectations

Jun 16, 2015 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
On the campaign trail the recriminations about violent crime between the political parties was nothing short of dreadful. Our politicians turned the discourse on the subject of criminal activity into the proverbial political football.
Our coalition partners in opposition, I believe ill-advisedly took the stance that the prevalence of criminal acts was all about governance and nothing else plays a role in it. That proposition created public expectations of a quick fix that may now clash with the reality on the ground.
It must be said at the beginning that criminals do not authentically wear party colours. They do not decidedly change attitudes because of a constitutional process that brings a new president to power and causes new ministers to sit around the cabinet table.
I suspect that there is a notion that because our president has a military background, he possesses the know-how to champion specific actions that will more readily gain a buy-in from our security forces. This may well be true. But I do not see the impact that will have on the nature and role of the Guyana Police Force or the Guyana Defence Force for that matter.
Our police ranks have no substantive role in crime-fighting at the prevention end. It is not their business to convince at-risk young people to change their ways. The job of the police is to pick up the pieces after the heinous deed has been done. It is the business of the police to find the perpetrators and put them before the courts.
But dealing with crime at the root is where efforts on the prevention side are more rewarding. The would-be murderer, who is thwarted by his own conscience or moral constraints from killing another, saves society the outrageous social cost borne by all of us. There is no better deterrent than the one that comes from inside of you.
It is obvious to me that crime-fighting strategies go beyond good police work. Criminal behaviour has deep roots that touch in all areas in our society. I do not see an easy answer. Never mind the number of sociological treatises our policymakers may read, that unbeatable blueprint that puts a quick end to the mayhem is never at hand.
It is scary when one considers the multitude of factors that set off the weak-minded on a course to create social horror. Poverty, joblessness, excess materialism, greed, illiteracy, lack of education, bad parenting and the like are all ingredients that help set alight the criminal tendencies in far too many of us. It is no accident when ever so often, we see the guns and the cutlasses come out and a wife or a neighbour gets killed.
Effective and targeted policies to address criminal behaviour at multiple ends are never easy. Our policy makers are challenged in knowing what weight they must assign to each contributing factor, and what is more important from what is just marginal. The science does not help as much as we would like.
At the end of the day, no government is so clear-sighted as to what it should do to turn our crime problem around. The approach government takes is largely trial and error. When something works government gets the credit.
And please do not tell me that I am seeing it wrongly and that all we need is a tough law and order regime to put an end to the lawlessness. Situations are rarely that simple.
If our crime rate is indeed at a crisis level, our coalition government will be under pressure to deliver results quickly or be forced to concede that it needs more time and more thoughtful action to succeed.
Wesley Hicken

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News