Boxing Day lawlessness will never happen in another country

Dec 28, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

At about 2 PM, my lunch guests, including my visiting sister, were on the verandah when a posse of about 30 motorcycle riders, some on ATVs, all without helmets, was passing on the railway Embankment. They created horrible noises and intimidated drivers. They were zigzagging from one side of the road to another. Drivers were really sacred. Not one rider had a helmet on his head.
The obvious thing that came to my mind is the sheepish nature of this population. If they passed my home, then I figured they came from the East Coast. Even if they didn’t use the old highway, thus evading the Sparendaam Police Station, then surely, because of the openly menacing nature of the spectacle, someone had to report this to any police station.
All of my guests felt that something was wrong with Guyana that on a major public highway, this kind of ugly behaviour could take place on Boxing Day with such sick impunity.
Three hours later, around 5 PM, I was taking my cousin who was one of my guests, to her home in Eccles. The other guests, including my sister, accompanied us. Thank God my wife was not with us. I challenge any reader to imagine in a modern Caribbean country that what I am about to describe could happen.
When we reached Houston, that posse that passed my home three hours earlier was creating chaos that never happens in real life. You only see it in a science fiction movie. The gang’s number had now extended. They were all over the one-way eastern lane of the East Bank highway riding in the opposite direction. It meant they were coming in front of the vehicles from the opposite direction on a one-way roadway.
The car next to me had a male driver. I don’t know if he was Dr. Mark Bynoe, the head of the Department of Energy. I was teaching at UG when Dr. Bynoe was a staff member there but I don’t think I ever saw him. I don’t think I have ever seen him in person. But I know his wife very well. She was in the car. She said to me, “Hello Freddie, why is the line not moving?” I replied, “What you are seeing is from a science fiction movie.”
If Dr. Bynoe was in that car, given that his wife was caught up in that ugly, terrifying situation and given the status he holds, I hope today, he has a few words with the Police Commissioner. My sister intoned; “This would never happen in Barbados.”
My wife’s friend with a little fear in her voice said; “Are they robbing people?” About ten of the riders stopped and parked their bikes on the road impeding the flow of traffic. Two of them urinated right in front of the drivers.
I called traffic head office for ten minutes; no answer. I called Brickdam Police Station for ten minutes; no answer. I have the cell number of the traffic chief but when I checked it was not in my phone book. I have the cell number for a personal friend who is a senior traffic rank. His name is Ramnauth. Unfortunately, Ramnauth told me he is stationed in Berbice and would try his best to make contact with senior police officials in Georgetown.
The compelling question to ask if you have reached this part of my article is; how did that gang get from the Railway Embankment on East Coast Demerara to Houston on the East Bank without police interception? Do you know how many streets they had to cross to get to Houston?
I cannot complete this column without the mention of a little incident in the mayhem that brought me satisfaction. I admit; it did.
There is total traffic insanity. The entire highway is occupied with stalled vehicles and a siren came blazing. It came from an escort car that was clearly a civilian vehicle. I looked back and figured that a minister or some big wig was being escorted and wanted to pass. Drivers were scrambling and scampering out of the way to let them through. I stayed in my line. They couldn’t pass. I was waiting for the confrontation. We were all caught up in a traffic nightmare without police presence in a tenth rate banana republic and that big wig should not be anointed with imperial status.
What I saw on Boxing Day will continue to deter young people from remaining in this country. Foreign and Guyanese expatriates obviously saw what happened. Obviously those gang members knew Guyana has broken down and they enjoyed what they did.

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