Dear Editor,
I refer to the updated news story on the robbery and killing of rice farmer Hardat Kissoon a week ago (SN, June 7). It was well planned and executed. Stakeout at the bank for victims; tracking him to the bus park; having an accomplice board the bus while another rode along on a motor cycle and waited for a lonely place outside the city to pounce. This modus operandi defines Guyana as a place of desperate criminals, and worse, a place where the government lacks the will and inventiveness to stop them.
The report in the story that one week later CCTV footage may hold the clues but had not yet been reviewed is disturbing. Was this meant to be an example of sloth? The mother of the victim never heard again from the police, according to SN. Is this an example of the police concept of public relations? And also, there was a conspicuous failure of an appropriate government official to use this event to give the assurance to the long-suffering citizenry that they have a plan to deal with this category of crime.
Here is another telling quote from the SN article: “There have been numerous complaints of suspicious characters hanging out outside city banks and as a result police had previously warned members of the public against leaving banks with large amounts of cash on their person.” Was this supposed to be a joke? The advisory from the police is very funny; to paraphrase, it is saying the public must take care of themselves, and the police will not do anything about the suspicious characters around the bank. And as for the motor cycle gangs, they will do nothing about that either.
In New York City, the police have a programme called Stop and Frisk. It is controversial but it has worked to deter criminals and prevent crimes. “Suspicious characters” doing stake-outs outside the banks should be stopped and frisked; guns maybe found on them. If they have no business to be there, the police should ask them to leave the area.
Four years ago, Rev Gideon Cecil, concerned about the burgeoning crime rate, suggested the army and police be deployed to mount foot patrols in the commercial district to deter crimes. His suggestion, a meritorious one, never got the notice of the policy-making body at the Home Affairs Ministry or at the cabinet level. Now a new government is in place, and there is no indication that bringing down the crime rate is a top priority on the ‘to do’ list.
The most recent information from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime lists Guyana’s 2010 homicide rate as 18.4 per 100,000 people − the fourth highest murder rate in South America behind Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. Guyana’s murder rate is three times higher than that of the United States.
I make a simple plea to the newly-elected government to adopt the policy of Stop and Frisk for 12 months’ adopt Gideon Cecil’s suggestion to deploy joint patrols of the army and police in the commercial district. It will deter criminals. Another Hardat Kissoon type killing may be avoided in the future.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
