Taser and road rage

Jun 11, 2025 Editorial, News

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Editorial…

Kaieteur News – Last week, we reported a new policy by the Guyana Police Force to use taser guns on citizens who violently resist or refuse to cooperate with traffic officers. This new action by the Force has become necessary due to some ranks coming under attack by citizens while performing their duties.

In a statement, the Guyana Police Force said there has been an increase in violent assaults against traffic officers across the country. The statement noted that “traffic ranks are being faced with significant challenges in enforcing the laws of Guyana, especially since a significant number of citizens are bent on breaking the laws by committing traffic breaches and not cooperating with the policemen when caught.”

These confrontations, the statement added, are becoming increasingly common among motorists, who attack traffic ranks who are unarmed. Traffic Chief, Mahendra Singh, was quoted in the statement as saying: “I want to re-emphasise that this type of behaviour by our citizens will not be condoned by the Guyana Police Force, more so the department. Anyone found committing any traffic offence in this country and, when challenged by our traffic officers, resorts to violently resisting and assaulting them will be met with the full force of the law.”

The assault on police ranks is part of the road rage we witness daily. We have seen in the past road rage spiralling into violent action over a parking space. Many have been shot, some stabbed, during the daily hustle and bustle on our streets. Citizens turning their frustrations on our lawmen should be condemned by all, but it was all but inevitable in the increasingly impassable roadways, owing to the countless, disorganised road construction sites. At almost every corner of our roadway, the government is undertaking major road works, with little or no regard for citizens’ need to commute unimpeded to go about their daily lives.

A safe spot on the road while on the move, and an available place to park, have both become a prized occurrence in daily life. We have more vehicles coming into Guyana, and it is not a trickle. The duty levied on vehicles below 1500cc has been reduced, which serves as an incentive for prospective buyers, perhaps the encouragement for a vehicle owner to add to his or her fleet. There are more importers and mechanisms for direct online buying from overseas, as far away as Japan, so the sedans and SUVs keep rolling off the wharves.

More vehicles mean more stress on roads tortured by long lines, honking horns, impatient tailgaters, speeding and encroaching drivers bent on edging ahead, even if that results in cutting off another driver.  In the sum of these circumstances on local roads, this is custom-made for fits of rage, expressions of aggression and hostility, and the presence of palpable menace. Courtesy and care went out the window ages ago, with confrontation and clashing being the norm, more or less.  Traffic ranks cannot be everywhere, and they are usually not around in times of tension and escalation, but when they do appear, sometimes they add to the stress and frustration of citizens.  Road rage, albeit at a low level, has been a simmering condition on Guyana’s roads in the city and country. Georgetown and its outskirts are the worst by far because there is nowhere to go.  The fact that everybody is in a hurry only serves to compound an already bad situation.

The Government has made infrastructure a lynchpin of its programmes, with roads featuring prominently. This has its benefits, and they are not tiny.  More roads introduce more trouble, in the form of more under-the-radar road rage, because most drivers are jostling to get ahead.  More roads and more modern ones mean more recklessness and related dangers, with an eye on the growing armies of new, young drivers.  It takes years of hard experience, sometimes bitter ones, to slow down the racing of the blood, the high adrenaline rushes. In all this, there is one constant.  It is about anger that spills over in full public view, and without a care about who is looking on, where matters could end.  We all have heard the horror stories and may have actually seen some of them ourselves, where rage reigns supreme, whatever the consequences.

The environment is peppered with aggressive citizens, drivers and nondrivers, with pedestrians blaming drivers and vice versa.  Minibus operators and private taxis attract their share of condemnation for impatience, haste, and angry exchanges in the boiling stew that is Guyana’s roads. Then, there is the issue of parking, which can deteriorate into an election-style tone and temperatures for a coveted spot.  Parking is a growing source of fury, with drivers carving out spaces for themselves wherever there is an opening, even if it means blocking a private bridge or a residential gate. Those blocked in and held hostage are forced to wait on the offender, who more often than not resorts to angry, abusive, and vulgar language when confronted.  When there is no regard for law and order, then this is the raging disorderliness that spirals dangerously.

It is our view that tow trucks and heavy fines can be a deterrent for parking violators.  Road rage perpetrators must be treated harshly with hefty monetary penalties, possibly jail time, if only to teach a lesson, keep them in check.  The rage and madness on our roads can be said to be of epidemic proportions.  Let there be a start to, at least, dealing severely with those whose anger gets the better of them to the detriment of others.

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• Guyana Police Force, Guyana Traffic Chief, Mahendra Singh, Road rage, Taser

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