Beware of having to eat your words

Apr 12, 2018 Letters

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Editor,
I begin my article today with the quotation used by a “famous” criminal lawyer “It doesn’t make sense … something is wrong here.” These were the words used by that attorney when he presented that so called eyewitness to the media.
Something is wrong here he blurted out. “It just does not add up.” He was at the time laying the foundation of his case against the police in a supposed extra-judicial shooting of three criminals at The Georgetown Seawall. So sure of himself, Nigel Hughes was here solidifying his claims to a wrongful death shooting of his clients, or was he making a fool of himself?
I do not wish to go any further into the details of that claim, but suffice it to say that the “something that was wrong” as he posited was not with the police but with the three dubious characters he was vainly trying to beatify. I say no more!
Now, let us turn our gaze to the most recent of occurrences involving firearm possession and or usage and police action: We woke up today to the news of Police being successful in nabbing six men and four weapons and ammunition to go with. The six youths were intercepted by a prompt and alert force who were able to foil what would have been a bloody and fatal robbery.
Now, I would now continue my discourse with a few pointed questions, hoping to get some answers. Is there a conspiracy on right now? Why all this police work and the capturing of criminals and guns? What is going on here? Why now when the party that is most sympathetic to criminals is in power? Why?
Is it a matter that these guys are frustrated, out of work and forced into a world of crime? Remember, this was the main argument made for the criminal by the PNC when they were in opposition, that Black Youths were unavoidably goaded into a life of crime because they were jobless.
With the advent of that sympathetic party into government what has become of “the good life” that was promised? Was that talk of a good life only an election gimmick? Was the good life only for the old and retired and not for the youths?
Did The Granger Government throw The Youths of this country by the wayside, leaving them to become criminals and vagabonds only to be arrested while in hot criminal pursuit?
Is it a situation that Black youths are targeted as criminals and thieves? Is it the profiling of youths of a certain race? Something is radically wrong with The Guyana Police, why are they out to get “innocent” young people? These are some of the questions I would like to ask The Government in Georgetown?
Is the GPF out to embarrass and humiliate Mr. Granger’s Government? Why these police killings, and why these sudden successful arrests? Why now? Where is that lawyer who usually stands up for the “rights” of the criminal, where is Nigel Hughes in all of this?
My discourse cannot be complete until I cross reference with the happenings in another community right here in Guyana and the way they have responded to their hapless situation. I speak of over 5,000 Sugar Workers who were brutally axed from their only source of livelihood and the way they are coping with that brutal loss of income to feed their families.
Did they turn to crime? The answer is a resounding no! Not for one moment have they contemplated going the way of crime to earn a living? Not for one instance has there been record of any such criminality in the areas populated by the disaffected workers? The Sugar Belt has not recorded incidents of this kind.
All of these occurrences have been taking place in constituencies and strongholds of the main party in government. Yes, there is grave discontent in the Sugar Belt but they were never pushed to the point where they would want to go out there and violently take what is someone else’s.
I must hasten to a close. My final thought is this. President Granger and company are painfully and shamefully learning a lesson right now. It is that you must be extremely careful with the things you say whether in or out of government. Your words must be seasoned with salt because words loosely tossed about would come back to haunt you.
Saying that the youths weren’t getting jobs which caused them to go into crime was reckless and should not have been said in the first place. The consequences of making excuses for criminal behaviour is a low blow any party can make. It is an unforgivable act.
My second, which is my main point, is that you must never play politics with crime because criminals will expose you at some stage of your political game. Granger and The PNC have played the political game for far too long and time and circumstances have caught up with them.
Even The Police Force cannot take the political stand back approach to criminals. Instead they have taken the bold step in going forward to rid society of the menace.
Respectfully submitted
Neil Adams

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