Helpful get out of jail card

Mar 12, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The article titled, “Questions raised over bail decisions for man facing multiple rape charges” (SN March 10). I raised questions via another public channel, and I do so again today.
One rape charge may (may) be understandable, but two of them? And when there are three such charges, what could be the reasoning by our sitting jurists for the granting of bail? To be unsparingly frank, when three charges of rape are laid on separate occasions, there is no justification. There can be absolutely none. Discussion done. Case closed.
Editor, I appreciate discretion and judgment call and burdensome case backlog, but there is something terribly wrong here and disproportionate to the circumstances at hand. In the circumstances surrounding this alleged serial stalker and rampaging predator, any questioning and deploring is not second guessing or belated wringing of hands. I mean there were three of these heinous incidents of violations. Our jurists cannot be this asleep at the wheel, so out of touch as to be unconscious of reality, comatose to it. From the media reports, it would appear that the allegations that could be levelled against this perpetrator may total in the low double digits. It is my belief that more painful and humiliating revelations will come to light, once traumatized victims can summon the courage to get past the pain and stigma.
I have said this time and again, and there is no problem with saying this yet again. I am all for leniency, but we are going overboard in situations like these to the disadvantage of the weak and vulnerable. And this is endorsing the dangerous assumption that all is aboveboard in the realm of jurisprudence, and where the granting of bail is concerned. It is a most helpful, considerate, and cooperative effort at delivering from the bench ‘get out of jail cards.’ Those in robes should be benched for such glaring lack of mental soundness, of judicial unwisdom. It is not Solomonic, it is diabolic, to the extent of being bizarre. I have to ask myself whether we are taking any bottom of the barrel legal denizens in the forlorn hope of converting them into prudent stewards, protectors of society. They are not, and I now move farther afield.
Editor, guns are used at will and almost without fail to terrorize honest citizens all over, but yet we learn of those who have been charged with possession of illegal firearms used in the commission of felonies being out on the street, and caught in the act of repeating their intimidations and injuries, sometimes lethal. Very few attack the innocent with a knife or stave or screwdriver anymore; the weapon of choice is an illegal firearm. This is what saturates this society, with due regard for that report of double-digit drop in serious crimes. Tell that to Guyanese looking over their shoulders everywhere they go. There is something horribly wrong with our system of granting bail, with our judicial system. Overhaul, anybody? I recommend.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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