What are the security services being praised for?

Jul 12, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The security services have been praised for performing an almost miraculous feat in removing the prisoners from the conflagration which resulted in the destruction of the Georgetown Prisons.
The security services did not do anything spectacular. They in fact bungled by removing the prisoners to the Sports Club located opposite the prisons. We now know the consequences of that action. The prisoners burned the Sports Club down.
The only reasons the authorities were able to remove the more than 1,000 prisoners to other locations was because the prisoners wanted to be removed. If the prisoners wanted to escape there was absolutely nothing that the authorities could have done to prevent that from happening.
Guyanese citizens, politicians and institutions therefore must be more guarded with their comments about the security services doing a fantastic job.
The security services have onto now not been able to bring under control the chaos within the Lusignan facility, where many of the prisoners were taken. The prisoners have been providing live streaming about developments within the prison. Some of them have cell phones with data plans.
Images on Facebook showed them chasing a cow and then tying its feet clearly in preparation for slaughtering the poor animal. Newscasts showed scenes of persons waiting outside of the Lusignan facility to find out about their family, but not knowing if they were there, because up to yesterday midday there was no list of the persons who are being held there.
The relatives were being told to check the list of persons, taken to Berbice and Timehri, and if the names of the loved ones were not there, to assume that they were at Lusignan. This is the state of confusion which is being praised by some politicians and non-governmental organizations.
Unless Guyanese begin to accept that the security forces cannot guarantee the security of citizens, we will end up having crisis after crisis in this country. The prisoners rioted last March. Seventeen prisoners died in that inferno. Days later, after the authorities met with the prisoners and assured them that their concerns would be examined, the prisoners rioted again and took control of the entire prison.
The authorities had to know that another riot could have erupted at any time at the Prison. They left the population vulnerable.
The security services blundered on Sunday night. They should have moved the prisoners – who were not refusing to be moved – to an open space where they could have been better managed. The prisoners should have been taken to a military camp for processing. They could have been easily trucked into Camp Ayanganna for processing and to be isolated.
The authorities moved them instead to the Sports Club opposite the prison. As I indicated, the prisoners burnt that down too. A group was also sitting and standing around on the road outside the prisons. They could have walked away if they wanted to, under the cover of dark.
The fire service is coming in for blame. But it was the failure of the other security services to create a safe environment, early during the conflagration, which prevented the fire service from getting the fire under control. The fire service could not have been expected to douse the fire when they were being pelted with rocks and gunshots were being fired. They should not be blamed.
Guyanese should find no comfort in the security operations of Sunday night. The population of Guyana is like a flock of sitting ducks. If the cows in pasture are not safe from the criminals who are incarcerated at Lusignan, how can citizens feels safe?
Just go to any police station at night, and it is clear that if there are any major criminal activities, there are not sufficient police ranks on duty at nights to deal with the threats. Security is as thin as a wafer.

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