GPF statistics say one thing, citizens live with another

Jul 06, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Something is wrong because there is that which contradicts. We are talking of crime in this country, with specific reference to robberies. That is, robbery of citizens on our streets in broad daylight, and all other hours, on a seemingly daily basis. Crime, as in robberies, is everywhere, with no person feeling safe, no community out of the reach of daring, enterprising bandits, almost always ruthlessly efficient.
What is really going on with crime, as in robberies, when the Guyana Police Force (GPF) releases statistics that indicate a significant drop in serious crime that should be welcomed? (“Brazen acts of robbery becoming a norm around the city” KN July 5). According to the GPF’s statistics, there was a “38.4 percent decrease in armed robberies committed with guns for the first four months of 2021.” Moreover, and also publicised by the GPF, “armed robberies perpetuated with the use of other instruments decreased by 47.7 percent” for the same four-month period.
This is most commendable, and we at this paper are glad to say so. For this means that robberies involving the presence and/or use of guns were one less out of every three committed, which can only be well received. No less relevant or important, the GPF’s numbers noted that there was a drop in robberies using any other weapons (“instruments” the GPF called them) by close to half. Again, in more concrete terms, that translated to one less such robbery for every two previously committed. This is a big positive, and when added to the one-third decline in gun robberies, this is a cause for some, if not much, gratitude.
So, what is the problem, and why do we find it necessary to editorialise today about robberies? It is because citizens do not feel any safer, they lack confidence and, this must be presented frankly, they do not trust those GPF statistics. They are asking themselves how the numbers can be so encouraging, but the everyday reality in street and town and village and park and just about everywhere is so different. This is more than about perception, or of statistics that were intended to soothe, but now fall drastically short. This is about what they see firsthand, what they happen to be near to, or what has happened to them in their travels or their homes.
In our article referenced, we shared the observations of our reporter who happened to be on the spot of a robbery being committed. This was so brazen, as to occur before onlookers, who themselves, on most occasions scramble for distance and the security that such brings. Robberies have gotten so commonplace, so alarming, that even touts, no saints themselves, are forced to speak up and condemn what they notice going on before them daily. The touts do more than observe and speak up; some of them arm themselves (“bai dat is why yuh does ga got yuh strap fuh drop some of them”). Put differently: to be ready for any eventuality.
Along the same lines, the KN July 5 story shared that “security guards, maids and residents of Republic Park, Nandy Park and other areas close to the Demerara Harbour Bridge area are being robbed every day by motor bike bandits.” If it is not BMX bicycles, it is motor bikes, which are all over, and can be seen with young men seemingly scouting the terrain and searching for targets of opportunity. And when the robberies do not involve two wheels, then cars are employed in an unending series of robberies that belie the statistics.
Now we must point out that the GPF’s statistics specifically identified those robberies involving “guns” and “other instruments.” Of the latter, we would think that knives and such are at work. We arrive at two places, which we present to the Guyanese public. First, it is obvious that the GPF’s statistical net leaves out robberies not committed with the use of such weapons, or weapons of known kinds. And, that our robbers now depend more on sheer numbers to overwhelm citizens, and bypass that net because muscle and not weapons was utilised.
Whatever it is, the bottom line is this: robberies are frequent, and Guyanese are victimised more and more.

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