Curbing crime is our responsibility

Apr 03, 2016 Features / Columnists, My Column

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In another six weeks this country will throw the biggest party it has ever seen. The occasion will be the fiftieth anniversary of the nation and all of Guyana will be there. People will be coming from all corners of the earth. These would be the Guyanese who would have left this country so many years ago, some never to come back until now.
Some of them wanted to come home for a vacation, but the crime wave kept them away. They would have been reading about the shootings and the robberies. They would have been reading about the attacks on people coming home, some of them even before they reached their destination.
Some things happened. There was a change in government and a crime-fighting strategy that was unheard of. Suddenly, criminals who were on a rampage were put on the back foot. The police had established relationships with communities and were provided with valuable information. Pretty soon, crime went down but there were still the sporadic attacks on the innocent.
These past few days there was an outbreak of shooting deaths in and around the Charlestown area. These were execution-type killings—people heading home or sitting on a bridge and getting shot. The killers in many cases had no grouse with those they killed; they were the mercenaries.
At this time the focus is on two killings on the border between Charlestown and Albouystown. The first was a soldier who was stationed at Timehri. He asked his commanding officer for permission to go home. We may never know the reason. We know that he died. We also know that his commander recognized that he had come from the ghetto and that he had made a commitment to turn his life around. He was 22 when he died.
Two nights ago there was another killing. This time the man was more than twice as old. Some are making a connection, but the police are not so quick to do the same. And this news is reaching the Diaspora from where the people are coming for the big national party.
Everyone knows that when people come they provide a boost for the economy. If everyone should append US$500 then that money adds up. Imagine if one thousand people should come and they all spend US$500 that adds up to US$500,000. So, one can imagine the drive by the police to ensure that nothing stops the visitors from coming.
Strange as it may seem, the people coming are coming from societies where the crime is even more brutal. Every day I look at the news out of America, I see a shooting in one State or another. Innocent people are shot and killed. Then there are the mass killings, some in shopping malls, some in cinemas and some in parks. But these people still feel that they are safer where they live.
If we expect the police to do everything to halt the crime situation then we have to think again. This is a situation for every Guyanese. Many of us see things and keep our mouth shut because we don’t want to get involved. That is not going to help.
One thing that I do know is that many of those coming are doing so with credit cards. If they are robbed, then the attacker would get little or nothing. But this is only part of the situation. There is the question of private security.
These days many of the security guards are women seeking a dollar to put food on their table. Most of them are single parents. Just this past week, a young man attacked one of these guards. She was 60. The young man raped her and might have killed her had a man not run to her aid. There must be more of these men.
There is another thing. Too many guns on the streets. It seems as if every young criminal has one and is prepared to use it. This is where intelligence comes in. The police would welcome information on the location of every gun, but people are not talking. It is as if the people want to protect the criminals.
And so we come to the point where we must decide whether we want to play hosts to the greatest party or whether we want to torpedo the celebrations. But the very people who are committing the crimes want to be a part of the party. They too want to celebrate, to say later that they were there.
I was there at the beginning and I want to say that I was there come May 26, 2016. As a reporter it is my duty to see that the celebrations are to be remembered. I suppose that is why we pay close attention to all the developments occurring at this time. It is this attention that revealed some of the aberrations that occurred recently.
One of them was sparked by an April Fool’s report in the Kaieteur News. That report was skillfully contrived and it caught many. At the time of writing, there are still people who believe that report. Former President Donald Ramotar called me to say that the report boosted the income of GTT and Digicel. People kept calling him from every corner of the world.
There are people who want to see the unity that the report talked about, but most did not want to see it happen. They claim that they struggled for too long under the PPP to give away any concession. I can’t blame them, although I would like to see an end to the political acrimony that abides at this time.

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