Mephistophelean nihilism in a Guyanese courtroom

Jan 28, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Magistrate Leron Daly of the Providence Magistrate’s Court jailed a man for four years for cocaine mixed with cream liqueur in two bottles. The same Magistrate assigned five years to a man who pleaded guilty to ten charges of violence including brutal robberies, shooting at three policemen and shooting at a member of the public who attempted to rescue one of the victims.
According to the Kaieteur News of Wednesday, January 27, 2016, the young man was assigned ten counts. On some of the charges, he was given five years and on others three years, with a total of 51 years. But the 51 years vanished because the Magistrate collapsed the 51 into five based on the concurrent mode. With the consecutive mode, he would have served 51.
But here is the shock. A year is only nine months under the law. So 15 months will be subtracted from the five years. This bestial robber will only be punished for three and a half years. He laughed reverberatingly in court when he heard about his five years leniency.
This is complete nihilism. Laughingly, this nihilistic masquerade which makes Faust’s journey look like sempiternal pleasure in paradise comes months before the biggest fireworks in the world is seen in Guyana as we celebrate 50 years of Independence. In which country can one fire at three policemen while they are attempting to apprehend an alleged criminal and he gets five years?
To attempt to murder a policeman in the eyes of the law in every country in the world is a deadly crime that is met with harsh punishment. On ten counts of violent crimes this man will serve three and a half years. This cannot, and should not be accepted, given the context in which we live right now in Guyana
What is that context? The ubiquity of crime – some of which makes bestial perpetrators of homicides in the United States look like teen mischief. If a poll is taken today, almost a hundred percent of the interviewees would list violent robberies as their number one fear. It doesn’t matter which political party you support; it doesn’t matter how much money is flowing in purchasing power; it doesn’t matter how many vehicles are entering the country; it doesn’t matter how many “skyscrapers” are going up all over Regions Three, Four, Five and Six, the crime situation is terrible in this country.
If you hate the PPP and you don’t want to say it because it will make the PPP look good, then that is your choice. If you don’t want to say it because you support the new government, then that is your right. If you don’t want to say it because it will make Guyana look bad to the outside world, then you are entitled to that attitude. If you don’t want to say it because it will deter tourists and visitors, then you have a right to that position.
But at the end of the day, criminal violence in this country is achieving psychotic dimensions and we as a nation have to recognize it. The courts have to be condign with violent robbers and killers
It has to have sociological implications for this country when Guyanese see that lenient sentence. Magistrate Daly’s poor judgement (this is my opinion) is going to put the scare in people. Guyanese will ponder what their country has become, that in the midst of a crime syndrome a man will serve three and a half years for ten counts of vicious, violent action. The one-year sentence is as elusive as the price tag on an item without VAT. If the price says $3000 and you take it to the counter and VAT is added then the item cost you more than $3000. There is a supermarket on Water Street where people flock to because every item has a price tag that is lower than all the other supermarkets, I mean all the others.
I believe each item has a price tag. But you soon realize that this supermarket is not the cheapest because the price on the shelf does not include VAT. I got caught with that so I hardly patronize that particular retail outlet.
The deception is the same with a one-year sentence. It is not one year but nine months. In actuality, in terms of physics, in terms of time, nine months cannot be the equivalent of one year. When Magistrate Daly sentenced that man to five years she virtually and practically actually assigned him confinement to three and a half years. Who cares if the court document says five years?

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Mephistophelean nihilism in a Guyanese courtroom

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