PPP Govt. moving, policing moving

May 09, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-  The Guyana Police Force (GPF) is being lit up by its own fires.  From left and right, the calls are coming, and they are for change from top to bottom in the GPF.  Included in the calls is one for the head of the Commissioner of Police, Clifton Hicken.  Though that has weight, and the GPF is in dire need of a complete overhaul, the commissioner is sure to continue his charmed existence, will be untouched.  This is how I see it, call it.

I also see that two police ranks have been fired in relation to the handling of the tragic case of Adriana Younge.  One constable and one corporal may be specific to her ill-fated life, her mystery demise.  But what about the length and breadth of the GPF, those other ills?  Though commonsense can be elusive, there’s still enough of it to assert confidently that the sum of the woes in the GPF cannot be just two of what foxy politicians like to minimize to ‘a few bad apples.’  Politicians need dirty cops to cover for them and their cronies.  Dirty cops are only too glad to have high-level ruling pols indebted to them for favors rendered, because that gives them [the cops] license to help themselves to the detriment of law-abiding citizens.  Political secrets foster police scandals.  I, therefore, submit this: whether the Adriana Younge failure, or broader policing ground, more than two cops erred and brought circumstances to where they stand uneasily today.

So, what if more than two cops overall are tainted, and badly?  What does that euphemism-a patented political hypocrisy, really-of ‘a few rogue cops’ mean?  Only two dozen of such law enforcement workers?  A mere two score cops with non-procedural ideas, and the willingness to implement them?  If the higher number (40) applies, then both the GPF and Guyanese are in decent shape; manageable and curable.  But-and it is a heavyweight but-what if there are 200 cops who have their own policy book, and their own operating standards?  Lucrative ones, I may add; but perilous to the welfare of ordinary Guyanese (whatever that means these days).  With 200 corrupt cops around, the good cops shrink, shake.

Now, I’m appealing to the wisdom of Guyanese, avoid tampering with their politics.   If there are 200 crooked cops, that’s a frightening number.  Imagine the wave effect on the professionals, principled ones.  The very thought is enough to make me think of planes travel, and dealing with that Super-cop up north.  I think also of the bright, blue Atlantic as an exit.  Try this.  Considering the interceptions and conversations that occur daily between drivers and uniformed police workers, 200 stop-and-frisk cops (for road documents) don’t look that farfetched at all.  Talk to 200 citizens and be ready to absorb 2000 police stories, none of them good for the sinuses.  Guyanese can’t breathe.  Furthermore, think of the narcotics business that the sharp-eyed eagles in the USA filed a report on, and who came in for a slamming.  Whoever said the GPF just won the first prize, a cup of soup.  Throw in narcotics, the rewarding business of bad kings and weak princes (craven politicians also), which is money laundering.  Who came in for honorable mention along with Guyanese “political entities”, but the GPF?  These guys are as well-regarded as a sorcerer in a cathedral.  The point is that whether sophisticated white-collar crime, or bake-and-saltfish crimes of opportunity on the street, the GPF is somehow present, or lurking in the vicinity.  Even if by some miracle its members are not, the power of reputation conquers all before it.  Rather sadly, benefit of the doubt ends up in a train wreck.

It is why the cry is for reform.  Now when Pres. Ali embraces police reform, I get a fever.  Because whatever he means with police reform, few in Guyana have the same definition, the same understanding, the same objectives over what is involved.  Not even his own people.  Two cops are not it.  A tap on the wrist (SoPs and Kops), and a tip of the hat (CoI or the FBI) do not impress.  For one, the new FBI is not the FBI of old: too much political pulling and pushing, and old age.  I separate from the honorable Opposition Leader, for a simple reason.  What have any CoI given to this nation, other than administrative sludge, perjury, loss of memory, and a nice story that regular people urinate on?  Here is a challenge for all Guyanese: how can a group as morally and ethically deformed as the PPP Government begin to talk, promise, police reform?  An unbeliever I am with that one.  Mark my words, folks.

When Guyanese see true police reform, they will know it.  Here’s the first qualifier.  Police reform wears neither red nor green.

(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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