Crime is out of control

Jan 06, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A woman, last Thursday, escaped becoming the victim of an armed attack in the city when the car in which she was seated was stormed by two men. One day earlier, bandits relieved a miner of his expensive gold chain in Linden. The day before, a school teacher was waylaid and robbed of 1.2 million dollars after making the withdrawal from a bank.

On New Year’s Night, an America street jeweller was robbed. On the same day, a city resident was robbed of over $400,000 in valuables.

Three days earlier a staffer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation was about to enter the Guyana Power and Light when she was pounced upon and her handbag containing her belongings was taken from her. On the same day, three foreign businesspersons were robbed on the East Bank.

One day earlier, bandits invaded a home at Sophia and held an elderly woman at knifepoint. She resisted and in the confusion the bandits darted. One of them fell through a hole in a bridge leading to the premises and he was captured and given a sound thrashing. And so it went on.

Every day in Guyana persons are being robbed. Trinidad may be the murder capital of the Caribbean, but Guyana is the robbery capital of the region. Citizens are at the mercy of bandits. They are not safe on the road and they are not safe at home. They are not safe anywhere in Guyana.

Life has become a lottery. Every step you take is a chance. You do not know if bandits are going to storm your house. You do not know if carjackers will seize your vehicle on the road. When you go to the bank, you have to worry whether you will be followed and attacked. Nowhere is safe anymore in Guyana.

Crime is out of control. It is beyond the police now. They cannot cope with the high incidence of armed criminality. In fact, they have their own problems with a number of their ranks being caught in compromising acts.

People are now afraid to make reports to the police. One woman is alleging that she was raped when she went to make a report, and that attempts are being made to pervert the course of justice. A senior police rank is being investigated for liquor smuggling.

The response of the government is to signal the need for reform. Security sector reform has been tried before. It cannot surmount the problem which Guyana faces with crime. You cannot reform deformed crime-fighting machinery.

Billions of dollars are being fritted away on schemes which will only see, at best, marginal improvements in crime. Guyana does not need SARA to recover state assets. The monies assigned to this albatross would be better assigned to fighting those motorbike bandits who are preying on citizens. There is no way that SARA can recover the amount of money it is expending. SARA’s operations are based on speculative assumptions which have no bearing to reality. It has become a nest for political activists. SOCU, on the other hand, is more interested in political witch-hunting than in combatting organized crime. E-government’s crime strategy is failing.

The government has been slow to act. In November, the United States Embassy issued an advisory to its citizens to be careful about attacks in the parking lot of a major supermarket. Yet, if you go to that location, you will not see any police presence.

The bandits know that police stations are thin with personnel at nights. They know that there is no quick response to crimes, and so they are preying on innocent citizens.

Non-traditional approaches must be pursued. Certain offences should be decriminalized. This will free up human resources and time to deal with crimes against the person and increase the number of patrols. The management of crime needs to be decentralized.

Guyana has to solve its own crime problem. There is no need for any foreign advisors to be advising the Guyana Police Force. They are wasting valuable resources. They should be sent packing and the monies which are being used on their support should be directed to employing more police and ensuring increased patrols.

The carnival season is soon to descend on Guyana. A great many visitors will be coming to our country. They should rethink their plans. Guyana is not safe.

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