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The police and the crime fight

Nov 19, 2015 Editorial, Features / Columnists

We have been hearing about an escalation in crime within recent times and indeed given what is heard and believed when combined with what is read one must come to that conclusion. As the saying goes, once something is repeated often enough then that thing becomes believable.
Over the past few weeks scarcely a day has gone by without some report of a robbery. Some have been brutal; gunmen have entered homes and terrorized the homeowners before carting away their possessions. Others have occurred on the streets, the most glaring has been the attack on money changers on America Street in downtown Georgetown.
There have been others. On many a day the media reported gunmen robbing passengers on minibuses along the East Bank Demerara corridor. Berbice has not been left out. In fact, at one time Berbice appeared to be the crime capital of the country.
Gunmen targeted many homes, particularly those in which visiting Guyanese stayed. Most recently, three of them entered the home of a businessman, who, but for his determination to fight back, might have been another casualty. He managed to chop one of his attackers so bad that the man needed hospitalization. His other attackers made very hurried departure to the extent that they dropped the gun—a shotgun—that they had used during the attack.
However, the police deny that there is a spike in crime. On Friday Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum, provided figures to contradict the contention that there is an increase in crime. He did admit that murders have increased and that gun crimes have increased slightly but that other crimes have gone down.
The average man would not take too seriously to reports of a man snatching a phone or to the people who break into stalls in the municipal markets. They would react to the murders and to the gun crimes. Once these have increased then the people would contend that there is an increase in crime. They would not care much for comparative figures.
Truth is that people’s memories do not keep tab of what occurred in the past. The fact that more people died in 2006 than in this year does not suggest that life is becoming peaceful. To compound the issue, the new government was critical of the People’s Progressive Party administration when the criminals appeared to rule the roost.
The members of the then opposition claimed that they could put an end to crime. Sadly, this has not been the case although the police have been able to apprehend more of the criminals in the wake of the criminal endeavour.
There must be a combined effort by the courts and the police. The police are lamenting that while they take the criminal off the streets the courts invariably put them back. The Crime Chief spoke of a man he described as a serial criminal.
He said that this man, Sherwin Trotman, over time would have earned the highest degree one could confer on a criminal but for some reason the police failed to gain a conviction. Even when the police did gain a conviction and expected that the man would be off the streets for at least three years, the man appealed the matter and was set free, only to kill a businessman.
There are many other cases. The problem rests with prosecution and more often than not, the criminals can secure smart lawyers who can keep them out of jail. It was former President, the late Desmond Hoyte, who said that criminals pursue their activities because they do not expect to be caught.
There is a third side to the purported crime escalation. This has to do with the seriousness of the communities to rid themselves of crime and criminals. People need to collaborate with the police. Sadly, such collaboration is not very common. Many reasons have been proffered for this, not least among them, crooked cops who liaise with the criminals.

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