Is Mike Singh seeking to sow seeds of discord within the GPF?

Dec 01, 2018 Letters

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Editor,

The Holy Bible in the book of John 8:32 says, “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.
Often times, it takes the Fourth Estate to go in search of the truth and when this is found, it is disseminated to the public and usually has several effects. Some people accept it and others frown, especially when it bring to bear their shortcomings.
Please permit me to respond to a letter published in your Friday November 30, 2018 edition of this newspaper by one Mike Singh Sr. under the caption ‘Leroy Smith and his unrelenting attack on this police commander’.
I wish to put a few things into perspective as Mr. Singh may have missed the mark.
I am a freelance journalist and in that capacity, I write for only one newspaper in this country at the moment. Outside of that, I am the editor of the ‘BIG Smith Crime Watch, which brings news via the social media platform, Facebook. Not sure what he meant by ‘working at different news outfits’.
Mr. Singh correctly stated that I have been attaching myself to the Police Force and further went on to state that I do this in an effort to gather knowledge. That it is what any good journalist would do. I am happy that we can agree on that.
Reference was made to me ‘attaching’ myself to former ‘A’ Division Commander Clifton Hicken. I would like to clarify that.
I was not ‘attaching’ myself to the former ‘A’ Division Commander. We were ‘attached’, just as I am attached to every other commander who served the very division and even those who currently serve in other divisions of the force.
And as Mr. Singh rightly pointed out in his letter, it is something ‘any good journalist would do’ in the furtherance of knowledge gathering.
I will not address the airgun aspect of Mr. Singh’s letter as that matter is under investigation and the weapon has been sent for ballistic testing according to a police Sergeant.
On the issue of me naming my dog, I am not aware that it is taboo as it relates to what names one can give to his pets or animals. I find it strange that the name, which I floated for my dog would go down as offensive to Mr. Singh and whoever else.
Even more alarming would be the reasoning behind him seeking to tie that into the baseless caption of his letter and suggest that the name was somewhat connected to a police officer. Nonsense I say.
When we want to catapult ourselves on pedestals, we have got to be very mindful that our utterances do not give the impression that our motives are engineered. I did make reference to a Christmas tree collapsing and Mr. Singh claimed that he is often on social media following this and that.
Well if he indeed was, he would have known that my reference to the Christmas tree was made hours before any word circulated that a life was lost. So seeking to play up a notion that I was attributing the death of a man to the police ‘A’ Division is nothing but grandstanding.
Yes attention was brought to a rank of ‘A’ Division who carried out an authorised police escort of a civilian vehicle along the East Bank Demerara. Nothing has been heard of that matter from the force or the division. And yes there was an incident where the very rank crashed a police vehicle and again nothing was heard of same.
So yes, given the force’s SOP as it relates to providing escorts and how they are dealing with ranks who damage the state issued vehicles, I have a right to enquire about these matters as it is ‘what a good journalist would do’.
Mr. Singh indicated in his letter, “I always saw Mr. Smith as an up and coming reporter who could hold his own”. I am pleased to inform you sir, that in your letter, it was the only thing you were absolutely correct about. I have walked the walk and today I am actually ‘holding my own’.
It is funny that in this ‘holding my own’ process when some boats are being rocked, those who claimed to always want to see you ‘hold your own’ become offended and concerned when the waves are not favourable to the boats they are in.
But that is the nature of the game; some will sail with you and others will abandon ship.
Lastly, it is unfortunate and highly inappropriate that Mr. Singh would seek to insinuate that my closeness to a number of senior officers have sparked what he termed ‘an attack of the commander and the ‘A’ Division’ a claim that is baseless on so many fronts.
Further, his latter statement only makes one wonder, is he trying to drive a wedge between the existing professional working relationship between myself and the Guyana Police Force or is he seeking to foster some sort of internal uneasiness within the noble organisation?

Regards
Leroy Smith

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