7 policemen at my gate on Sunday night

Feb 21, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I love my country, but that love has never and will never come before conscience, in which I believe lies the soul of a human, and the soul is where our essential decency exists. I will never lacerate conscience to deny my country’s wrongdoing. If my wife or daughter was in charge of this country and violations were committed against innocent citizens then all hell would break loose in the Kissoon family.
I had an interesting argument with my two friends Dr. David Hinds and Dr. Nigel Westmaas one night at Nicky’s Fish Shop on Drury Lane, Campbellville. Both gentlemen were visiting, so we did the usual lime. The topic was a very complex one. Nigel remained silent. David took a position that I opposed.
The topic was one of the daughters of President Forbes Burnham, who I will not name. It seems that David knows her. David said he wanted to meet her halfway about her father. According to David, she is open to talking about Forbes Burnham’s rule, but she will not denounce her father. I remember his words; ‘Freddie, how can you ask her to do so?” I said I can understand that, meaning that you cannot expect her to denounce her father. But I vehemently disagreed with the contention that such a position is acceptable.
For me, conscience rules the life of a human. I know Forbes Burnham did egregious things for which I can never forgive him. No ruler should victimize a dissident’s family. That line must never be crossed. Burnham crossed it with me. If you think Burnham was a hero, then that is your right to hold such an opinion. I think otherwise. And I think otherwise not because of the personal issue(s), but my conscience.
Forgive this long digression. I return now to the caption above. I know the police force is up against it. While we are sleeping, policemen are fighting criminals that are shooting at them. The police force is not responsible for the amount of money it receives from the state. It is the state that has to outfit a police force in keeping with modern requirements in the 21st century. My country is backwards after achieving 51 years of Independence.
What I saw at my gate last Sunday night motivates me to criticize this country and to do it willingly, angrily, and in keeping with the role of conscience. I looked out the window and saw four men on motorcycles at my gate. The time was 8 p.m. I came out on the verandah and spoke with them. They were peeping into a parked car, right in front of my gate, using the light from their cell phones. They identified themselves as police ranks and asked me if the car was mine. I pointed them to my car under my house.
For ten minutes, these four cops shone their phone lights into the car. Then an open back police vehicle came with three cops inside; a plainclothes detective, the other was in police outfit, the other was a traffic officer. They all continued to shine their phone lights into the car, the doors of which were locked. The plain clothes detective had a tiny torch in his hand.
One of the policemen said; “look someone is in the car!” A man was in the car, lying down at the feet of the back seats. They ordered him out. The detective began exchanging words with him. They handcuffed him and he told the detective, “you trying to embarrass me” to which the detective replied, “so why did you lead the police on a high speed chase?” I think he ended up outside my gate because he thought he could have driven onto the Railway Embankment when he took my street. I live at the end of the street where it becomes a cul-de-sac.
While this exchange was going on, the rest of the squad was examining the car with their phone lights and two of them were shining the phone lights in my yard and the neighbour’s. My daughter asked my wife to get a flashlight. I began examining my yard. It was obvious they were looking for whatever they thought he might have thrown over our fences.
I was also looking at a backward country. Almost fifty-two years after Independence, in a country riveted with a sickening rate of violent crime, policemen in vehicles on night patrol are not outfitted with powerful flashlights. Whatever that man threw into my yard or the neighbour’s, they couldn’t see with cell phone lights. Maybe the suspect came back for it at midnight.

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