The crime problem

Feb 27, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Who feels safe anywhere anymore, at any time? Any Guyanese, outside of those with layers of bodyguards, an array of surveillance equipment, and warning systems, who feels safe should step forward and encourage other Guyanese with their confidence, and the reasons that make that possible.

With crime an uncertain quantity, and citizens unsure of whose story to rest their trust in, it would help to comfort those who do not feel so confident about their safety. The Guyana Police Force has pointed to its statistics, and they indicate a downward spiral in some categories of criminal activity, particularly those labeled ‘serious crimes.’ The disconnect is that what is considered to be a minor crime (less than serious) to Guyana’s leading crime fighting institution is what is feared and, hence, serious to the man and woman (and child) who have to walk the streets feeling naked and vulnerable. This is in the daylight, and with plenty of other citizens milling about, walking around, or on the move. To take out and talk on one’s cellphone is to take a risk, or at least this is the wariness, the hesitancy, of the unsteadiness of strength, the lack of confidence-inducing substances. It does not matter that the cellphone may be of a cheaper variety, there is the concern about using it in public.

Who is watching, could be waiting to pounce? Which innocent looking fellow customer stands ready to relay some intelligence (description, observation, activity, and conclusion) to their waiting partners in crime, when a citizen does business at a bank, or a store? How about the marketplace, where much smaller sums are involved, and very few shoppers, if any, walk around with a bundle of cash or jewelry? This is the nervousness that bedevils the unsuspecting, the careless, and the alert, and those who do not fall into any of those rough and ready classifications. When the norms of the day deteriorate to this state of ongoing anxieties, then where are we really with crime, comforting statistics and all, and accepting them as they are provided? And with acknowledgment of the efforts of the law enforcement agents? The concern and the question linger, would not go away, diminish: who feels safe? Who trusts their streets, be they in city or village, close by or out of the way?

Law abiding citizens sitting in their cars, minding their business, focused on their priorities, do not take their safety for granted. Truth be told, many are on edge, with road madness at terrifying heights, and the lurking never out of internal radars and sensitivities. A bump could degrade into a verbal brawl, a scratch into a long running wound. Papers shared are discovered later to be fake, crimes like these multiply outside the official reports (the now so-called ‘private matter’, as officially declared), but with costly damage still inflicted on property and psyche. Mostly, crimes like these do not count, the problem of the citizen so violated, so abused, so at a loss in more ways than one. It is just the nature of the local terrain.

In other Guyanese avenues, citizens absorb the rantings of political leaders, especially ruling ones, and they shrink in fear. These men have limitless power, the intimidation factor on the surface, dripping with menace. One politician is proud to assume perpetually a wrestler’s stance, with words to match for those who cross his path. To stretch things a bit, if an ordinary citizen were to project such hostility, there would be cries about aggressiveness and dangerousness, and the rest. There are these verbal incitements, from which supporters take their cue, bide their time to lash out, which is why social media, and the local environment is so saturated with the vile.

Then there are white collar crimes, a daily occurrence in Guyana, from top to middle to bottom. In public service Guyana, be it elected or selected, Guyanese are being roasted over a spit and stripped of the little that they have. It is called a bribe, a toll, a gratuity, or a paydown or kickback. In Guyana, crime is now almost a right, an ideal, a culture justified by politicians and public servants. Law-abiding citizens lose each time.

crime, criminal activity, Editorial, Guyana Police Force, Guyanese

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