Does this project by the police make sense?

Mar 31, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – Since December last year, directly outside my home on the Railway Embankment, at 7:30 AM, I see the traffic ranks in a well coordinated exercise stopping motorcycles only and requesting to see their document. The police have a canter trunk and dozens of defaulting owners have their bikes taken away.
I am told that the action is not confined to the Railway embankment but many other areas in the city like the Square of the Revolution (which revolution President Burnham was talking about when he named it as such?)
What is wrong with this exercise? One is that, it should not be done at the rush hour because it affects the free flow of traffic. Think of a bank employee who is late in an institution where it takes hours to be served. Secondly, given the number of owners who I see that have their stuff taken away, it means that many workers and schoolchildren will be late. Thirdly, what papers are so crucial that if you don’t have them your property has to be taken away? Fourthly, in morning traffic, do you need six ranks to conduct each exercise?
So I drove up and asked one of the ranks if there are ticketable offences for motorcyclists. He said yes but when I stopped in my car, I held up traffic so I moved on. There is an irritating dimension about this exercise. Many schoolchildren and people being taken to work as pillion riders are left stranded. Obviously, this would happen because the operation occurs in the mornings when children are going to school and people are off to work.
Another question is whether the time of day is appropriate. Most motorcyclists owned by “dubious” people do not come on the roadways so early in the mornings. This exercise begins from about 7:30 and its net catches most honest people going to work who may be delinquent with one of the required documents.
In the evenings is when the “dubious” motorbike owners come out to play. Over the past three years, a certain section of the motorcycle community has modified their exhaust system to create unbearable noise on the roadways; they perform mostly in the late hours of the night. Why isn’t there a decision to make this adjustment illegal?
The police have issued an edict that certain types of emblazonment on minibuses are not allowed. Why can’t they stop the exhaust modification? The tampering with the exhaust system achieves one effect and one only – it increases the volume of the sound. That noise disturbs your sleep and it can be heard almost half a mile away. And no air-conditioning system can lessen that noise.
What logic is there to this action? You change your exhaust so it can make more noise. Is that rational thinking? I can understand people restructuring their engine to achieve greater speed but why would you want your bike or car to make more noise?
On Sunday evenings, the congregation can be seen in the compound of MovieTowne. The security ranks at MovieTowne are afraid to confront these riders because they react violently. From what I have seen, not one of them wears a helmet. The logic is simple. These fun-riders who use the streets as a playground do not come out in the morning hours. They do their thing in the nights and on weekends.
So the police are not going to catch them if they patrol the streets early in the mornings. The people the police will arrest are owners who are taking spouses to work and children to school. All schools are to be opened next month, I guess to be followed shortly by UG and Cyril Potter College. So larger numbers will be affected by this morning project of the Police Force.
Interestingly, there was a news item in this newspaper about the emphasis the Attorney-General has placed on the issuance of tickets. The AG’s position is timely because too many motorcycles are being taken away in these morning exercises by traffic ranks.
I look out of my window, and I wonder what papers are missing from these riders that should cause their bikes to be taken away from them? And think of the bureaucratic hassles one has to go through to replace those papers. My driver’s licence is nearing expiration, and I fear having to go through the GRA jungle. For months now, my landlines are not working and I fear going through the nightmare with GTT to get them fixed. Do people need that kind of hassle for simple things like fixing a phone? Can somebody fix my landlines without creating a headache for me? (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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Does this project by the police make sense?

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