Strange behavior of the police

Jun 21, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I present here to you and all readers a story I consider to be somewhat troubling which ought to pique your interest and undivided attention. A story which made me pondered aloud what precisely is the Public Security Ministry up to and more so the direction of the David Granger led APNU AFC administration.
Sometime in February/March of this year, I think I received two messages from someone that a police woman wanted to see me, I treated it lightly and promised to stop by whenever I’m passing – I never remembered. Then on Wednesday June 8th I received a telephone call from a female person at the McKenzie Police Station who identified herself, stated her rank-Sergeant, very politely I must say. She informed me that she is the officer heading the complains section, reminded me of a letter I wrote in December 9th 2015 that was published in the Stabroek News – “Linden Policeman Creating Noise Nuisance” and told me she needed a statement with regards to that letter. I was baffled, why a statement, as a citizen I expressed my observation in a national paper. Anyway she called back on the following day and requested – though she seemed determined – that I drop in and give her a statement. I agreed and did so later in the day.-
Now editor please, very quickly allow for us to see what it is with this letter that was written some 6 months ago. In that letter I referred to two items in the Stabroek News of Nov. 27th 2015, one under the heading: “Alleged cop assault on Paradise Fisherman being probed”, where it tells about a policeman who allegedly struck one Amar Zaban 23 years old in his head with a beer bottle blocking him out, he received several stitches to the head and had to be admitted.
The other item under the headline: “Corentyne resident mistreated by policeman”: which related another troubling story about a young man Andrew Lewis, a Skeldon Estate worker who after work was followed by a policeman in his car, who in an aggressive manner pushed his hands in his pocket, took away his wages, seized his haversack, took away his chain and cell phone while accusing him of break and enter. He then placed him in his car cuffed him to the head and behind his neck repeatedly while threatening him. I made mention of personalities in the police force and endorsed what one Barrington Braithwaite wrote, “The disturbed personalities and troubled background of some police groups….. that the system had captured troubled unbalance personalities and created soulless beings out of them” and further questioned the modus operandi of recruitment. I also questioned: “Is this kind of behaviour a permanent fixture embedded in the Guyana Police Force.
Now as for the topic of the letter: “Linden policeman creating noise nuisance” which I thought was the reason for the complaint authority in Linden really wanted to see me about: it spoke about the damning behaviour of an indiscipline policeman who was in the habit of driving around Town with powerful sound system in his jeep/car blasting to the heavens, the speakers placed both sides of the window, no matter where he goes – hospital, school, clinic, library, funeral: the sound remains at that deafening range, he even drives into the police compound the same way: so I criticised this behaviour and questioned his status since he cares not a toss and no one in authority it seemed bothers with him: this is what I thought the police sergeant as the head of the complain department who called me was interested in – clarity, and with an eye to the future of arresting such malpractice moreso by an officer of the G.P.F.
But I was shockingly mistaken, it was as I saw it a hoax, monkey business! After typing in her heading, subject matter and whatever into her computer she then asked me something about my name having an e, I responded that is it written just as it is in the letter, she quickly consulted a file that was on her desk that had the letter and other papers clipped together and got the correct spelling. Then she asked about my race, you not mixed or anything? I responded;”as you see me”, and instantly for a moment she had me going but for some reason I let it go but became very apprehensive, as she followed through what is your age, and without getting any further I immediately realised that my presence at that station had absolutely nothing to do with some, unruly, indiscipline cop, but rather detail information/data on me. Where is the nexus, the relevance in having specifics about me and an article on noise nuisance?
Yes, I have written a number of times about the conduct of members of the G.P.F, “damage goods” some who choose the force with hidden diabolical agenda as exemplified by a host of past events. I have written time and time again about hazardous blind turns that need attention, humps across roads that need highlighting, of having a few humps placed along Sir David Rose Ave, which has been converted into a race course, of placing traffic signs where needed; of the increasingly young wrecklessly dangerous, inexperienced drivers, who must be constantly monitored, about those frighteningly massive lumber trucks that continue to ply the highway without the required complement of lights/reflectors/indicators at night.
All this and more to no avail, simply because these are not the least of their problems. As one traffic cop once said to me “dah is nah me wuk”, why then this obnoxious interest in someone who has drawn attention to them, why investigate the complainer instead of the complaint? Of course these things I pointed out to her but didn’t remember to respond to her question on the phone asking me how could I be sure the noise nuisance actor was a policeman? Yet in the cloister of my mind I think I know; have been in town too long not to figure, thus whatever one conjures up is invariably scary and which one can’t avoid or escape that sense of foreboding, when all is said and done, and that is troubling. What a strange coincidence for me upon realising that I penned this letter on the 13th of June, the death anniversary of Walter Rodney.
Frank Fyffe

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