SOCU: A new crime fighting unit with different clothes

Nov 02, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I note developments originating within the SOCU subgroup of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Though the days are early, there is a certain ring that emerges and echoes in its actions. As I look on at SOCU, there is alarm that it has exhibited the sinister eeriness that once graced another GPF unit that was feared, hated and, it has to be said, was misused or misled or mistaken in the zeal, oftentimes unlawful, with which that now disbanded unit proceeded about its tough tasks. I point to and speak of the notorious ‘Black Clothes’ police that once existed in troubled and agitated Guyana.

Most Guyanese living here or abroad are most familiar with the exploits of the old Black Clothes people. Its members were very visible and palpable in their potency, complete in their power and authority to intimidate, if not outright terrorize. This included from the law-abiding to the main targets, those suspected of heinous criminal activities. The colour of the clothes was their calling card, and they were armed to reinforce the scope of their actions, overcome any objections. A segment of this society saw them as phantoms in uniform running around and swaggering about in the daylight. I am thinking of the Black Clothes and the heated disputes that it triggered among Guyanese. Now, though it may a tad on the early side to draw a parallel, I ponder if it is not reborn in the presence of SOCU, but on this occasion and in this time, focused on white collar crime and the people who are believed to have engaged in them.

In SOCU, I am beginning to discern the same startling heavy-handedness, the overweening impatience and intolerances for the inconvenient restraints of what the law requires and respects; such are niceties best observed with lip service, and in the breach. I assert that it was the same modus operandi of the men in black back then. In the simplest terms: get out of the way, get down, and get it over with. Case closed; move on the next challenge; perhaps the more fitting word to employ is target or object or obstacle (either way human), instead of challenge. Some Guyanese may be of the belief that this is a tried-and-true method of crime fighting, which produces results. As we have learned to our pain and regret, things can also go the other way by getting out of hand, with acute deterioration following. To aid in this linking of the past with the present, and both under PPP regimes, the Black Clothes were considered the noblest of ‘crime fighters’ by one corner of an endangered populace, while being thought of as notorious, stone killers in another, and with licence from the State to be just so: official thugs with uniform, badges, and guns.

The Black Clothes had its spearheads, who were hailed as heroes, including one murdered, only for his quick martyrdom to flee in shame, and under the pressure of unrelenting scrutiny and exposure. What transpired in probate court also confirmed that conduct in the unit wasn’t aboveboard. With this once alternately hallowed and heinous Black Clothes band of brothers (it was all men) standing as precedent, I am probing as to whether history is repeating itself here today. Like I said, the body of work and the leader of the pack of attack sleuths in the form of SOCU are still in the growing stages. But I detect some similarities, similar arrogance, and possibly the same outcomes eventually, hopefully not. Some may say white-collar crimes are victimless, bloodless. But if they only knew, if they could only be honest enough to trace from start to terminal point, and it is only after that and then, there comes appreciation of just how sanguinary white-collar crimes are. I am all for throwing the book at people. I caution that requisite care should be taken that it is an officially sanctioned tome, and not one that is made up as the road is traveled or that which suits the whims of men (and women) who become a law unto themselves. Just like our more colourful GPF crime fighters of yore. SOCU is to be watched.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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SOCU: A new crime fighting unit with different clothes

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