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Guyana’s unbelievable police force

Aug 24, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is a bit insensitive to be harsh on the police force at a time when crime has become an act of national terrorism. As a media operative, whatever I can do to help the police, I want them to know they can call on me. But surely, one cannot resist the obligation to talk to readers about the silly things the police force does.
My wife and I attended a West Coast wedding and we reached the western end of the Harbour Bridge at about 6.30 on our way back to Georgetown. On the western end of the bridge, four ranks were conducting routine searches of vehicles heading toward West Bank and West Coast. The exercise was on the bridge itself. Naturally, the west bound traffic was backed up. The bridge is one lane for eastern bound traffic and the same for westerly traffic. It is not like the highways when you can proceed when the police haul in a vehicle and it is on the parapet
The absurdity of the operation was that it was done literally yards away from the wide, wide highway that the bridge runs into on the West Bank. The operation could have been done on the road itself. I rang Vreed-en-Hoop and was told that such an operation was the jurisdiction of La Grange.
La Grange said it was the jurisdiction of Leonora. I rang Leonora. Number 268-2328 has been out of service for two years now. Even if you worship the Guyana Police Force you have to be honest with yourself and say that it is a sordid organization to have a phone that is listed for public use and is out of order for two years now. No one answered the other public line 268-2329. I eventually got hold of Assistant Superintendent, Johnson.
Johnson’s initial reaction was that the operation should not have been on the bridge itself but he proffered an explanation. He said that just as you leave the western end of the bridge, there is a little road on your left. Suspect drivers could have turned into the road and evade the searching ranks. That did not make sense to me. Put one of the ranks just outside that road on the sprawling highway and the other three could deal with the vehicles coming off the bridge.
I am sorry to be insulting but it made no sense to me and it makes no sense generally.  Two reasons explain this. First, there will be terribly long back up on the bridge for western bound drivers. Secondly, if you put the exercise on the broad highway at the end of the western section of the bridge, drivers cannot evade you once there are more than two ranks.
Finally, since the wedding was at Vreed-en-Hoop, I could not be at Vreed-en-Hoop without a visit to my friend, the new parliamentarian Michael Carrington. He has a shoe making, shoe repair business not too far from the stelling. We couldn’t get out. The traffic was nightmarish. I never went to Vreed-en-Hoop by the stelling on a late Saturday afternoon. What I saw there certainly called for traffic supervision and Vreed-en-Hoop police station is right in the middle of it.
But there was not one traffic cop to assist. Unfortunately, because of the traffic madness, we didn’t get to pay our courtesy visit to the Honourable Michael Carrington. My humble opinion is that crime will escalate because the police lack credibility. When the police appear incompetent in the eyes of a country, people lose respect for them and criminals are emboldened. The police force needs brand new leadership
Frederick Kissoon

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