Crime in the city

Mar 16, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We didn’t say it or share it. Some people bigger than us did. Those who are held at a much higher standing than us locals. But what they said is sharp and telling. The release from the United States Embassy on Monday to its citizens here was about crime. There was no mincing of words, and perhaps because it came from within such a mighty and well-regarded fortress as the United States Embassy, Guyanese of foreign or local citizenship (or both) may be prompted to listen more closely, and pay more attention.
It was a Security Alert that came just after midday on Monday. We extract directly from the Embassy Release to convey the gravity of the situation, compliments of American minds and eyes. Guyanese know this very well, because they live with it daily. Now for the extract: “The city of Georgetown is rated “critical” for crime.” To emphasise the U.S. Embassy’s urgency and concern, we bold and capitalise that key word CRITICAL. We say nothing, other than if we had ventured to employ such a word for crime in the city of Georgetown, we would have heard and been accused of ‘sensationalism’ or ‘exaggeration’ or ‘engaging in scaremongering’, even some kind of character aberration. Today, we let the U.S. Embassy go in front of us, and speak not just for us, but for all Guyanese, be they residents or visitors to this country’s capital city, Georgetown.
Things are considered so rough and endangering that the Embassy has put a restriction on its own people (“U.S. mission personnel may not independently visit Stabroek Market”). We think that makes for good sense in its abundance of caution and regard for the reach and power of Guyanese criminals and their exploits. Sadly, ordinary Guyanese do not have the benefit of the Marines to accompany them, in one of their regular or random passages through the Stabroek Market square. For thousands of Guyanese, being around, whether using or passing through, the Stabroek Market area is absolutely necessary.
But in this revealing U.S. Embassy Security Alert to its people, regarding how serious things are, the anxieties are not limited to the Stabroek Market, but also to the one at Bourda. Again, we quote from the Embassy release: “Mission personnel have been advised to use extreme caution when visiting Bourda Market during the day and may not independently visit Bourda Market at night.” In other words (ours), follow orders, don’t be stupid, and be safe.
It is a powerful testimony of how human rodent infested and dangerous two of our most congested areas in the capital have become, the state to which crime conditions have deteriorated. If Americans are prevented from being around two of our busiest thoroughfares, without accompanying assets, then the everyday crime outlook for rank-and-file Guyanese has to be stark. They have to brace the odds, and confront the dangers that lurk in every nook and cranny.
As we present this state of the city (not to forget or minimise the country as a whole), this is how Georgetown appears to those not born here and who doesn’t live in the trenches here. This does not say much about those broad comforting statistics trotted out by the Guyana Police Force cleverly skilled Communications outfit. There are those helpful crime statistics, which have some politics in them and which are not of much help when Guyanese stare at the wrong end of the barrel of a gun, or the business side of a knife. In such instances, numbers mean nothing. Just ask those who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people nearby and about to pounce violently and almost at will.
The reality is that Guyanese are plagued by crime, and wearied by its unrelenting assaults, now almost routine. Citizens have progressed (or plunged) from the frightening to the numbing. Sincere attempts to table those issues of great concern for Guyanese are too often greeted with the equivalent of ‘we know everything, others know nothing, so shut up and stop impeding progress.’ Some rich progress this is, in one of the richest lands around, where our own people (and foreigners) fear constantly for their safety.

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