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Is it safe?

Jul 18, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Many Guyanese are today living in fear. There is nothing that they can do to reduce or remove this fear. Citizens are afraid of venturing outdoors in the evening because of the threat of banditry. They are afraid of becoming yet another victim of Guyana’s raging crime wave.
Going out is a game of lottery. You do not know whether you will be the next victim of crime.
People therefore are going out less because even places, which used to be safe are no longer safe. A few nights ago, a doctor and another person went to a reunion event in the city. An event, which should have been a happy one, was turned into a nightmare for two persons. When they were returning to their vehicle, they were attacked and robbed.
This happened at an event attended by hundreds of persons and which had police security. So if the bandits are so brazen to rob persons at such an event, how can any citizen feel safe venturing to attend public events?
How more unsafe can Guyana become when bandits can pounce of persons returning to their vehicles from a well-attended event? No wonder nightclubs and bars are complaining about a decline in patronage. People are afraid of going out. They are afraid of being robbed and mugged.
The danger is not just to your person. A letter writer wrote a letter about a relative of his going to the fish-market at Meadow Bank recently only to return to a vandalized vehicle. Moreover, this was in broad daylight. Therefore, you are being robbed even at the market. People are afraid to go to the bank lest they be followed and robbed of their money.
When persons leave their home to go to the market, shop or to work, they are not sure when they return home whether everything will be intact. They do not know who is watching their movements and preparing to break-in and to deprive them of their hard-earned possessions. It is therefore not safe to go out and it is not safe to leave your home.
But the danger is not just outdoors. People do not feel safe even at home. The situation has become so bad that persons are even afraid of sitting in the yards. They lock themselves indoors because they are afraid of bandits invading their yards and forcing access into their homes.
The partly decomposed bodies of a father and a son were recently discovered murdered in their home. They were supposed to be safe in their homes but they were not. They were killed in their ‘castle’.
The state has failed to provide an environment of security. While the authorities are boasting about a decline in certain types of crime, there needs to be an assessment of the impact of the crime in people’s sense of freedom and how threatened they feel. There is hardly a day which goes by in which someone is not killed. There is not a day which goes by in which someone is not robbed.
Guyanese do not feel safe. There are no longer any safe places in Guyana. Homes are not safe, the roads are not safe; going out is not safe. Even when you are dead, you are not safe. There are tomb raiders operating in Guyana. They are robbing even the dead.
The dilemma facing Guyanese is therefore where to find safety. If you are not safe inside or outside of the home, then exactly where are you safe?

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