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Avoid shooting people down at all cost
Dec 14, 2015 Letters
Dear Editor,
That’s right. Law enforcement under APNU-AFC should, at all cost, avoid shooting people down.
President Granger(Chronicle, 12/12/2015) is clearly a sober and organised leader, believing that reason and the proper application of law, rather than loud mouthed bravado and mindless violence, are the preferred routes to solving problems in a civilized country.
He is right about the approach to dealing with suspects, and Guyanese should support him in this approach. It is obvious why.
If you ‘shoot people down’ you run the risk that innocent people may have been slain. If you ‘shoot them down’ how will you gather intelligence to understand, much less solve the crime problem?.
If you ‘shoot people down’ you can rightfully be accused of murder. Who decides the innocence or guilt of a citizen, and the penalty for an offense? Certainly not the police, or any civilian, or government official.
This is the jurisdiction of the Court, is it not? Let it remain there. If you ‘shoot people down’ it may be extra-judicial killing. It looks lawless.
The public’s perception will be that law enforcement personnel are acting as accusers, trial lawyers, jury, judge and executioner. You don’t want this on your record as a government, or as a society
If you’ shoot them down’ rather than arrest them it sometimes looks suspicious, especially in a country like Guyana, where the PPP corrupted the police.
Ranks have been known to be susceptible to bribery, and to be involved in serious nefarious activities, including in cahoots with Phantom Gangs. Guyanese may think, and not without justification, that the police want some offenders dead, because dead men tell no tales. Let the PPP keep this nasty record alone.
If you ‘shoot them down’ it looks ignorant, crude, uncivilized and indeed barbaric. And it is not only law enforcement that gets the blame. The Government, APNU-AFC ultimately gets the blame.
Mr. Editor, if an offender chooses to die rather than surrender there may be nothing more that may be possible. However, the police can lay siege (depending on the circumstances).
Cut off electricity, water, telephone, food supply, and try talking offenders into surrender. A two hour siege (even 24 hours) may not be enough time to bring out an offender(s) alive.
Justice requires patience by law enforcement, after taking precautions to protect the police and civilians from harm. Considering the kind of country that Guyana has become, the youthfulness of some offenders and the proliferation of guns, the preferred weapon, a specially trained ‘Siege Unit’ which includes expert crime negotiators should be built.
An APNU-AFC government does not want to look simple, ignorant, crude and lawless, using mindless violence, the things that the PPP seemed to have become. APNU-AFC must, in the eyes of Guyanese, be perceived as a sophisticated government. Raise the level please.
The APNU-AFC does not wish to give the PPP cheap talking points, such as, you see, they accused us of a murderous extra-judicial rampage, now look what they are doing. The last to be accused always look worse than processors.
Ivor Carryl
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