Kudos for the Police Force

Jul 29, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

Former President and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo gave Guyanese even more evidence in the past week suggesting that he is becoming increasingly delusional. He jumped into the back-and-forth in the traditional and social media about the five suspected bandits killed early last week on the lower East Coast Demerara.
Unable to resist the temptation to front like his word should be the most authoritative on any subject, Jagdeo was characteristically off-point, coming over as politically opportunistic. But he missed the point entirely.
In his ‘offerings’, he questioned the “sudden silence” of certain Rights and other groups which he said, had “hounded down” his administration between 1999 and 2011, i.e. whenever police squads had had shootouts with purported bandits.
In missing the point comprehensively, Jagdeo deliberately left out salient points, or he had a serious case of amnesia, especially about the aforementioned period.
So last week, the Guyana Police Force came in for high praise and public approval for responding so quickly and professionally to the residents’ call for help, thwarting the five bandits’ reported attempt to break into their home allegedly to steal a safe, but the former president had another opinion.
Virtually everyone commenting on social media put their politics aside and gave kudos to the police for being proactive and accurate. The bandits were known to them.
What the PPP’s General Secretary should try to remember when he attempts to compare police confrontations in Guyana’s history, is that never again has there been another politically protected police rogue squad other than the one who used to kill, maim and terrorize our citizens in the name of the Government on his watch.
Mr. Jagdeo must remember as we do, that the terrors that Guyanese barely lived through between 2002 and 2009 all occurred during his reign as president. The records show that there were 162 killings of innocent citizens and business owners. In 2002 to 2004 there were more than 500 extra judicial killings. A total of 27 law enforcement officers were also executed deliberately in those three years, allegedly by roving bandits who had become very bold because they believed that they were immune; couldn’t be caught.
A point to note: for the entire 20th Century in Guyana, i.e. the 100 years before 1999 when Jagdeo became president, only seven law enforcement officers had been killed in the line of duty in Guyana. Since we attained Independence in 1966, this nation had never seen so much bloodshed on this land before 2002, and never ever before had law enforcement been forced to bury so many of their own.
Despite all this evidence, the former President still has the gall to link last week’s police action to race and politics. He has convinced us that all he has left in his war chest is conning the PPP’s supporters into believing that everything has racial and political undertones.
“They said that we killed through extra judicial means and they included all the bandits and the victims and the policemen who were killed … and you had nearly 100 Indo-Guyanese there.” These were his words, muddled as usual, but definitely appealing to race, and attempting to rile up the people who habitually castigated the police force for him as a matter of course.
Thankfully, this nation survived that bloody era. We have grown past the pain that the Phantom Squad inflicted, along with the urban/social warfare that police rogues practised in the streets. Guyanese have matured and we have learnt to expect full service from the people sworn to protect and serve.
We are thankful that last week no Guyanese expressed any doubt that the police acted professionally and responded quickly to a call for help. It indicates that all the work that was done to begin to mend the public image of the GPF was not in vain. It indicates that citizens are once again willing to trust the Force to work and behave with dignity and pride.
We all know that changing the GPF’s image to a positive one, and improving the quality of service to communities, continues to be a work in progress, a job that began in 2015.
Actually it is very heartening to watch many policemen and women actively involved in community activities in Sophia, Albouystown, West Coast Demerara, Parika, Essequibo Coast, and some Hinterland communities. The District Commanders and station staff have begun to function as active leaders and service providers in the communities they are working in, and we are very impressed.

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