Residents of Nappi and surrounding communities have complained of police harassment saying that police put up roadblocks at night, threaten them and demand bribes but despite complaints, the practice has not ceased.
“What police do is they come to catch a raise on the road,” Guy Fredericks, the toshao of Nappi told Stabroek News recently. “That is all dem man does come on the road to do, harass you and get a raise,” he said. “It is going on right now.”
The village chief said he had spoken to the Officer-in-Charge of the Lethem Police Station about the incidents and the officer said he would speak to his ranks but the harassment still continues.
No senior police official could be contacted for comment yesterday.
For many persons in Nappi, 32.5 kilometres away from Lethem, motorcycles are the main means of transportation and often, residents would purchase these from Brazil. Fredericks said some of these motorcycles are not registered here but persons still ride these “hot bikes”. He said the police would go outside Lethem and between Nappi and Lethem, would stop persons traversing the road.
The toshao said that instead of the police taking away the motorcycles and charging the persons involved, they would demand money. He said some persons have paid off the police about five or six times.
Another government worker at Nappi, who asked to remain anonymous, said that some of the bikes are seized by the police and resold. She said her husband had spoken out about it in a recent incident and the policeman responded: “I does see you steady in Lethem, you gon know what I gon do to you.”
She related witnessing an incident where the police again stopped a resident and asked the rider to “set up something” but the woman with him began to raise her voice and the police did not restate their demand. “They are punishing the village,” she said.
“We know it is wrong to have the hot bikes but it is to fetch our load,” the resident said adding that the motorcycles are used to transport persons and their produce to and from their farms which can be long distances away. She said the police have said that they would go to Nappi to clean the community of the “hot bikes” but
