The role of the society

Jul 28, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

Whenever there is a prison break, society tends to slow down. People try to keep off the streets in an effort to avoid contact with the dangerous men who would have escaped. Such a situation is nothing new. In fact, in every country where there has been a prison break people in the vicinity would barricade themselves inside their homes.
The situation becomes even worse if there are reports that the escaped prisoner is seen in the neighbourhood. Guyana experienced a lot of this following the February 2002 prison break. For more than five years the situation was such that as soon as dusk approached people simply closed their doors. The business places closed even earlier.
People reported travelling along the East Demerara corridor at nights and failing to see even a single tail light ahead for some distance. As the years progressed, Guyana witnessed one of the most dangerous periods in its history. The records revealed the more policemen were killed during that period that during the previous 100 years.
But policemen were not the only people dying. Civilians died, too. Some were people who had a criminal conviction, some were people who had an association with criminal gangs and some because they happened to be related to a perceived criminal.
It is said that the law always prevails. The crime spree ended and life returned to normalcy. People started to go about their daily lives even at nights.
Now we have two other prison breaks and nine dangerous men are at large. Initially, social life slowed. This happened when the authorities reported that eight dangerous criminals, one of them being a person sentenced to death, had escaped from the Camp Street jail. The dust had barely settled when 13 others escaped from a holding facility.
That social life has not ground to a halt is testimony to the changed times. The society is not prepared to witness another crime wave, the likes of which almost took the country to the brink of anarchy. Indeed, back then young men roamed the streets with guns and with impunity. They were allowed to do so because the society stood by and said nothing.
The lessons have been learnt. In the wake of the recent prison breaks people immediately notified the police of anything suspicious. Four of the first set were caught in short order. The speed with which people reported the presence of strange men in the wake of the second prison break suggests that the society has no time for criminals in its midst.
But if that is the case there are certain members who hold an opposing view perhaps they enjoy the spoils from ill-gotten gains. These are the people who can make life dangerous for the rest of society. There was the teenager who escaped from the Georgetown Public Hospital with a gunshot wound. His parent and a sibling denied knowledge of his whereabouts. If they are to be believed then they did not share a good relationship with their son.
An escaped prisoner must get help and that must be the case to allow nine of them to remain at large until now. Somehow, they are being fed, clothed and housed. The danger rests in the fact that these people will want more in the days ahead. When that happens violence would erupt in the society. Innocent people would become the victims. This is what society wants to avoid. But then again, society does not always get what it wants. It does not want a major prison in the heart of the city, especially one made of wood.

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The role of the society

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