NEED FOR A LAW THAT COMES HEAVY WITH DETERRENCE

Jul 15, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
My heartfelt sympathy goes out to the bereaved family of Tedroy James, aged 35, a hardworking citizen whose life was snuffed out by a cold-blooded bandit. James rose each day with one thing in mind: to go to work plying his taxi-trade, doing a hard day’s work to make a decent living and to take care of his family.
Too many lives of hard working, decent citizens of Guyana have been snuffed out by bandits. And, to think about it seriously, there was really no need to kill. In too many cases the victims do not fight back, they literally surrender their cash and anything of value. In James’ case he did not resist, he only tried to drive away. Drawing a gun is enough to get the victim to comply with the bandit’s demands.
Fear of bandits stalks this land. Too many bandits, too many guns. This is a national problem; this is a government problem. Do not treat this category of homicides as a regular run-of-the-mill crime and leave it for the old laws on the books to take care of it. Society is getting fed-up with the inability of the govt. to take bold steps to deter rising banditry.
Today I call on the Parliament to be a little creative in their law-making function and to legislate a new law that carries a heavy dose of deterrence. This law shall also force the bandit to rethink his game plan and hopefully help him regain a little bit of his lost conscience.
I propose a new law that includes the following elements:
(1) To all bandits, if you must rob hardworking citizens, take your loot and make good your escape, but do not maim or kill your victims.
(2) If you maim or kill and are caught, there will be a military-style trial and if found guilty you will face the firing squad at dawn the following day. Justice will be swift – trial and execution within 48-hours.
(3) This law shall expire at the end of 12-months; and will be extended only if the parliament sees the need to do so.
It is reasonable for society to expect that within 12-months a majority of bandits will adopt a sort of honor code: Do not kill your victims. If the majority of bandits would adopt this honor code, the law may be allowed to expire and society will still reap the benefits the law had intended in the first place.
Mike Persaud

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