Guyana is in a horrendous state

Apr 13, 2018 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Guyana is in an extremely horrendous situation where criminal enterprise is concern. I make this remark based on the facts before me; criminal rampaging is at an all-time high, with each passing day seeing more daring and ghoulish acts being committed on the hapless populace.
Crime has gripped the Guyanese society with a crippling, deadly effect, and if it is not dealt with immediately, we would be stuck in this hell hole for a very long time. That is why I commend the Guyana Police for their alert and quick response to the six criminals now in custody. It is now left to the justice system to do their part in putting them away securely in a place where they cannot do harm or cause destruction to normal society. These guys are abnormally sick individuals and they have no place being among normal people.
Permit me to quote from the latest arrest information, “the six gunmen nabbed on Tuesday night include two former murder accused and three other individuals out on bail on previous armed robbery charges, one of the suspects has been described as a “serial robbery accused who was in court for similar charges just a day prior to his arrest.”
Further, “at the time of their arrest, they were in possession of two 9MM Glock pistols with 22 live rounds; a Beretta Pistol with 11 rounds; a .32 Taurus pistol with 6 live rounds of ammunition; along with a sledgehammer, two pairs of latex gloves and trade plates.” You would admit that these bandits were well armed and in criminal pursuit of things ghoulish and deadly. That mini-arsenal is testimony to that fact. This is purposeful criminal enterprise meant to create mass destruction and mayhem in society. This is the Guyana we are forced to live in, criminal and violent.
Now, for a small, struggling society such as ours, citizens should not, I repeat, should not be held ransom by such violence and backwardness. Honest, peaceful, law-abiding citizens must be set free from such vile individuals at all cost.
You must realize also that criminal behaviour does not stop there, It has the rippling effect of scaring away possible investors to our country, no one would want to invest in a country where crime and fear is so pervasive. Investing in such an environment is fraught with untold danger and huge risks for the investor. The sum total of it all is that our country remains isolated and stagnated and the whole nation suffers immensely.
Extreme fear and foreboding stalks the land; the fact that we fear for our lives that at any time our very existence can be snuffed out is an unnerving factor. We do not know what the future may bring, be it death or destruction. It can occur when we step out there to the supermarket, in the community, or right in our very homes. Fear is our cry and concern.
More time or stiffer penalties must be given to these armed bandits, and in this regard, our archaic laws must be amended to bring it in line with present day happenings. At the moment, sentencing for armed robberies is innocuous and bandits are getting away with “murder.”
You would have noticed that the latest capture and arrest of criminals, most of those captured are repeat offenders – some of them released back into the society for capital offences. One of the reasons they are able to get back into society so quickly is the fact that our laws are not strong enough to deal with these offences.
Our laws have to be more stringent and updated to keep these menaces in the place they rightfully belong. I am speaking of having them spend a very long time away in prison, enough time for them to sit and mend their horrific lifestyles. If ever they are to be given a new lease in life, this should be after a long period of jail time, enough time that when they are integrated back into society they would be old and infirm and in no fit state to create any trouble.
My advice on time spent in incarceration is that it should be wholly dependent on the recovery of the weapons used to commit the crime. If the weapons are recovered, then some time should be deducted. However, if the weapons aren’t recovered, then the decision should be life imprisonment. Society must be rid of this menace called armed robbery.
An accurate account has to be made of criminals in our country – a registry of records which would enable Law Enforcement in the successful tracking of criminals, as well as for later use in our courts when they come up for sentencing.
With these measures in place, we would see a drastic reduction in the crime rate if not seeing closure to it altogether.
Respectfully Submitted
Neil Adams

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