Dear Editor,
Once again both as an ordinary citizen and as an attorney-at-law I was outraged to read the following in Stabroek News dated May 30, 2008.
“Police round up Agricola men
“Police yesterday morning rounded up close to a dozen men in the East Bank Demerara community of Agricola during a raid which the lawmen said was a routine exercise.”
Mr Editor, Chapter 16:01 Sec 17 of the Police Act of the Laws of Guyana reads as follows:
“17. (1) It shall be lawful for any member of the Force to arrest without a warrant—
(a) any person who commits in his view an offence punishable either upon indictment or upon summary conviction; or
(b) any person whom any other person charges with having committed a felony or misdemeanour; or
(c) any person whom any other person—
(i) suspects of having committed a felony or misdemeanour, or (ii) charges with having committed an offence punishable on summary conviction, if such other person is willing to accompany the member of the Force effecting the arrest to the police station and to enter into a recognisance to prosecute such charge; or
(d) any person whom such member of the Force finds disturbing the public peace; or
(e) any person whom he has good cause to suspect of having committed or being about to commit any felony, misdemeanour or breach of the peace; or
(f) any person whom he finds between the hours of eight o’clock in the evening and five o’clock in the morning lying or loitering in a highway, yard, or other place and not able to give a satisfactory account of himself.
(2) Without prejudice to the powers conferred upon a member of the Force by the last preceding subsection, it shall be lawful for any member of the Force, and for any person whom he shall call to his assistance, to arrest without warrant any person who within the view of any such member of the Force shall offend in any manner against any law and whose name and address shall be unknown to such member of the Force and cannot be ascertained by him.”
Mr Editor while one might excuse the predecessors of the present Commissioner of Police (ag) for carrying out such unlawful and illegal acts, ignorance of the law being no excuse, Mr Henry Green, a qualified attorney-at-law can have no excuse for ordering or permitting members of the force arbitrarily, indiscriminately and with no lawful excuse, picking up, as against arresting, willy-nilly, citizens of the state, in their efforts to arrest the crime rate in this country.
One reads of the raids in Buxton and Agricola; never in Port Mourant or Rose Hall or Leonora or Uitvlugt.
Mr Editor, this lawlessness must stop now. We are not living in a police state. History tells us of the results when we suffer the loss of our fundamental freedoms under a police state with a political agenda.
Yours faithfully,
R J Eleazar
Buxton and Agricola are well known for harboring criminals,the army and police would regularly come under fire when passing through Buxton.The other areas mentioned are quiet so there is no need to carry out raids in there.
Those rules aren’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
This regime does not care about the rights of the people.
Only a certain section of the population is faced with police aggression and brutality.
They never did care about anyone’s rights, neither indo or afro guyanese, only PPP members.
If they were doing their intelligence efficiently and effectively, these mass round ups would not be called for. Now they are clutching at straws, and trying to appease the public that they are doing something.
With due respect to Mr R J Eleazar, his words are hot air to the authorities.
I have said time and time again, that the police have enormous powers, and they
use them to the hilt. Mr Eleazar’s words mean niothing to them and will mean
nothing to them for several challnges were made in the past to such police
actions, to no avail. It is always explained under, quote Mr Eleazar, ”
(e) any person whom he has good cause to suspect of having committed
or being about to commit any felony, misdemeanour or breach of the peace”
Very simple…’has good cause to suspect’, and therein lies the exercise of
enormous power, ‘good cause to suspect’. It might be whimsical, but no
magistrate will ever doubt the sincerity of the police for they are there to uphold
the law, to serve and to protect, and in its nature give them credibility.
An officer approaches an individual and is met with cuss words and loud \voice, as say for example, ‘why you ’s’ stopping me.’, or ‘what the ef is dis?’, and
proceeds to make an arrest for causing a “breach of the peace”. No court would
doubt the officer’s expalantion. It is a police state under such circumstances,
and words of protest mean nothing.
If there is a competent and reliable police relations body which could
expeditiously deal with complaints against the police then we might see better
‘good order and governmance’, for the police would realize that they cannot and
should not exercuse extreme power under the least pretext.
The word on the street is that these late Friday nights / early Saturday mornings
raids are intended to justify the police approach to crime solving and bandit
hunting, as well as making it clearer to all that power rests in their hands.
In most cases the persons are locked up for the weekend and then released
on Monday mornings.
What has the police gained?
Nothing but more public distrust and resentment, while the police chief gloats
that his men are seriously working.
Some joke.
Don’t waste time talking law in a lawless society. If the Government could bypass the law, why can’t the police?
The unlawful rounding up of our young men is exactly why our law-enforcement officials will spend years chasing after reincarnations of Fineman and his gang.
There were raids recently on the Corentyne,which netted guns,ammunitions and criminal elements who are before the courts, so stop trying to mislead the public with this subliminal racist rhetoric.
Go back and read accounts of Police Practices in places like Soweto South Africa during the apartheid era and you will be shivered by the similarity between what was happening then, and what is happening now. Like Oliver hinckson, Steve Biko was arrested by the regime in power for speaking out against oppression. Hopefully the outcry over this dastardly miscarraige of justice will save Hinckson from the fate that befell Biko.
The Government can justify its campaign against crime and violent criminality when it cautions Law Enforcement to proceed under the guidance of Laws and Constitutional Guarantees. But this is not what is happening in Guyana today. In fact the Government and many who have been given space to air their opinions under cover of annonymity are extorting the joint forces to operate as though they were in a war against a clearly defined population group, and advancing all sorts of excuses and justifications for human and civil rights abuses.
Guyana is in the vice grip of a meanspirited dictatorship. No doubt about it.
You have the nerve to compare Hinckson to Steve Biko comparing an illegal regime in South Africa to a democratically elected government, I don’t see or hear the rest of the world denouncing the PPPGovt, just a handful of PNC operatives who miss “their good old days” under the Maxim Leader Forbes.
Justice4all if you want to call it ethnic referandum then you can continue, the problem is that you have a problem with indians. You should open your eyes and try to see beyond the race blinders you have on. You can’t blame the people for how they vote, the fact is its a democratically elected government. If Obama does not win in the US i am certain you will blaim race.
If this government was a racist gov’t as you are trying to make it to be then the public service and police and army would have been different today. go check it out.
I so beg to differ with Eleazer’s belief that we do not live in a police state.
We certainly do!! when we can’t traverse our own country without first going to police/immigration and customs and CANU.
Mabura Hill’s Police outpost screens you going and coming to/from the rupununi. Ogle has Immigration,
Customs, CANU and GGMC who you must go through leaving to and arriving from the interior.
When you arrive in another location in the interior you must report to the police station and give them your name, age, address and life history.
So yes – we do live in a police state!!
Like dem people seh – dis is Guyana, we’s do wah we wyan heh!!
The Police are cultivating more criminals. That is exactly what happened in Buxton the Police were harassing these young men so they ran away from their homes and joined the gangs / resistance. The Police have to engage people in a more sensible way.
People must be free to walk the streets . as I said before Guyana is heading to be a Police state , where One can’t talk against the State .
The Police must be friends of the people not been seen as part of a oppressive system . To uphold the law freedom of movement must be protected be the police