Crime in Guyana

Feb 13, 2025 Editorial, News

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Editorial…

Kaieteur News-Every day in the capital of this country there are reports of no less than four robberies, all where guns are involved. It is a frightening situation, although the authorities sometimes make light of it with statistics saying that the serious crime is down. For last year police reported that over 180 firearms were seized. Hundreds more are in the hands of citizens.

Guyana does not manufacture firearms, but its neighbour, Brazil manufactures the taurus pistol– one of the weapons of choice for the bandits here.  In this crazy spate of criminality, the bandits have taken a liking for the Chinese supermarkets, although most of them are outfitted with armed security men.

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 often points to their statistics, which almost always 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.  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 in Guyana)

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• Editorial, firearms, robberies, Statistics, taurus pistol

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