Help! Help!

Dec 18, 2016 Features / Columnists, My Column

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There are a lot of angry people around and their anger is directed at the government. Many are blaming the President for his apparent lenient and Christian-like approach to the current crime situation that has young men targeting just about everyone who appears to be an easy target.
Two nights ago, I got a series of phone calls informing me of young men on the roads taking away the cellular phones from people heading home. The report stated that there were people in the vicinity but they did nothing. To compound the situation, the promised police protection was said to be absent.
Then there were the robberies on a larger scale. Once more gunmen targeted a man who had gone to a commercial bank and had made a sizeable withdrawal. This was about the third such robbery in two weeks.
Again, I wondered how it is that the gunmen know who has made these withdrawals. My suspicion is that they are working with people inside the banks but then again, it could be that they have friends who merely loiter in the banks checking on customers.
Whatever the case, these attacks are hurting the government and the country. One man said that he was afraid to visit a drinking place for fear of a visit from gunmen.
What is known is that these young men are illiterate having left school, with little knowledge and skill to make them meaningful products in the society. Of course, these young criminals have role models, fellow criminals who always seemed to have a ready supply of cash to do casual things.
I still wonder at the reluctance of people to use means other than cash to conduct transactions. Plastic or a cheque is as safe as anything. I can understand the businessmen insisting on cash transactions because they can evade the taxes. However, what they avoid to pay becomes a bonanza for the criminals. Either way the businessman loses.
A friend noted that most of these robberies are conducted by people on CG motorcycles. His recommendation is that the police harass every rider of a CG motorcycle. He says that there will be some inconvenience but the old adage of better safe than sorry will win out.
It is not that Guyana is unaccustomed to the robberies. Rather, it is the intensity and frequency. People talk about the days when they would walk the streets unmolested. Yet others talk about the times when they slept with windows open and doors unlocked. They also spoke of the police who knew who the criminals were. Not so anymore because the young criminals are too many.
And as if the spate of robberies is not enough to make a mess of people’s mood, there are the frequent blackouts. Just about every day people expect the power to leave and this often happens in the midst of something important.
The people at Guyana Power and Light keep assuring the nation that they have enough power to supply the nation. Yet there are these incessant outages. We expect to hear about the trips in the system and about periodic faults. These trips and faults are all too common.
At nights, people become afraid when the power goes because they expect unwanted visitors. Business places close their doors because in the dark, gunmen simply storm them. It means that the young gunmen are just about everywhere but the police simply cannot find them.
A gang visits a Berbice money changer. There is no secrecy because the men proceed to use sledge hammers with telling effect. Calls to the police do not help the situation because the police station reports that there are not enough of the ranks to respond.
Minister Khemraj Ramjattan had promised to deal with these criminals. The criminals are dealing with him and with telling effect. He had promised to have the soldiers help patrol the streets; these soldiers are conspicuously absent.
At this time of year people flood the city. Many of them become victims as they await transportation to go home. One would expect that there would be a heightened police presence at the car parks; this is not the case.
Indeed the police report a decline in serious crimes and I believe the statistics, because I still remember the crime wave. I recall driving home and being the only person on the streets as soon as it became dark. The night clubs were empty because no one felt safe.
Then came the retaliation; killer gangs stalked the streets, targeting anyone who might have had a criminal past. The society rebelled. The pious among us began to talk about extrajudicial killings. There were people who warned that if the police heeded the calls then the criminals would become emboldened. So said, so done.
I couldn’t help but notice that the President of the Philippines boasted of cruising the streets looking for criminals to kill. Then the country reported that nearly six thousand people were gunned down in five months. I hasten to add that this has not slowed the drug trade in the Philippines.
I don’t recommend the extra judicial killings, but I do recommend that known criminals be taken off the streets. One young man awaiting trial for attempted murder goes after a man with money. He is caught. The word is that he would be released on bail in short order.
These recidivists may have a mental problem or simply no fear of the law. The society needs to be protected. Perhaps if President Granger should change his stand on crime the situation may change for the better.

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