Massive crime reduction would be most welcomed

Jan 05, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Last year, the Region 4 Commander of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) said that there was a reduction in crime from the previous year (KN September 3). It is not just an ordinary reduction in serious crime, but a “massive” one, which the statistics, on the face of things, seem to reinforce. Yet, there is this continuing struggle to reconcile statistics with reality, and soothing statistics with the gnawing perception that the crime situation is not massively reduced in Region 4. Not reduced at all, but is going the other way, meaning that it is increasing and everywhere.
The last thing we at this paper would want to do is to think that Region 4 Commander, Simon McBean, is a party to any kind of statistical slickness. We think too well of him, and he has not given any cause for us to be otherwise. But here he is with his figures, and here are Guyanese out there, and there is the greatest difficulty in bridging the gap that exist, and which plague us on a daily basis, if not on a moment-by-moment basis. Indeed, life in this country, including the vast Region 4 that the Commander oversees is this scary and individually imperiling. Region 4 is where the busyness is, the business transactions (money) are, and where the rewarding criminal action could be, and actually is. But, according to the GPF and Commander McBean, the numbers point to a reduction, and they are real. We should believe them.
With all due respect to this senior police officer, we have trouble doing so. We are skeptical and, without putting any ideas in the heads of our fellow citizens, it is our belief that many Guyanese share our sense of doubt, the strong disbelief that is harboured. For sure, the numbers look lovely, but they don’t add up. They don’t have the strength of believability to them and worse, they do nothing to ease the feelings with which Guyanese live, not just in bustling Region 4, but throughout Guyana. There is this nagging sense that something is wrong, something could be missing, and as much as we want to accept what the GPF, through Commander McBean shared with us, we are hesitant, and stubbornly so. Now, since this reduction is all about numbers, we take a deep dive into them.
First, it is that there were 206 robberies for the first eight months of last year. For clarity, the Commander was kind enough to share the four categories of robberies involved, which we now compress: with a gun, with other weapons, with aggravation, and with violence. However looked at, all four have some common elements, particularly force, and regardless of instrument in hand, including the bare hand itself. In essence, what the GPF has put before Guyanese all over, is that given that eight-month period (January-August) -243 days – there was less than one crime a day that fits any or all of those four categories. It would be interesting to learn what robberies, if any, are being excluded from this count. Also, given the robberies versus number of days elapsed, it could be said that Region 4 is safer than around the White House and Buckingham Palace. In case anyone thinks we are joking, we couldn’t be more serious.
People at this paper were robbed recently by the ‘Big’ Market area, and that same teeming marketplace is a hotbed. One of the hottest of crimes seen and onlookers not saying anything; crime happening and citizens hurting. The Big Market area should be a robbery category all by itself, given the profusion of crime. This is not perception, but the reality of daily experience of commuters and shoppers.
Moreover, when a period-by-period comparison is attempted, fearful citizens lived with a robbery rate last year that is cut by almost half. This is almost livable with, if only the numbers could be found to be embraceable. It seems that everybody has a firearm these days. Yet robberies involving those have declined significantly – a whopping 42 percent drop; or for every five such crimes in 2020. This is all good, but does it give Guyanese less grief? Speaking for ourselves: no!

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