Dear Editor,
I have travelled this entire nation and I note with interest that from Essequibo to Berbice we have more sellers than buyers. What’s interesting is that these people go to the extreme to sell anything to get money; they don’t care what they sell, and it seems the police turn a blind eye.
With the current increase in crime, I believe a lot of things selling on the pave, in the market and in our stores should be banned.
For example, I see lots of sellers exposing pornographic DVDs openly for sale, and even schoolchildren buying from them.
They sell masks or false faces that criminals wear to rob people. Most of the toy guns look just like real guns, and I know of instances where people were robbed by bandits with toy guns, after the bandits lit a squib to scare them first.
If a toy gun seller is smart and has contacts he/she can even sell real guns to selected customers and no one will know because the toy guns and real ones look the same.
The squibs and bombs used on Diwali Night and Old Year’s night are very dangerous. I read of a woman whose hands were severely damaged by these bombs. People pelt them on the roofs of houses that could cause them to burn down.
They pelt them onto cars and on people to injure them, yet these bombs and squibs are sold openly and the police do nothing about it. In markets and many arcades they play very lewd, loud music and that is another distraction that helps criminal elements to rob people so no one can hear when they are robbed.
Now I come to these dangerous knives. Just a few days ago I saw a man at the bus park walking and selling knives strapped onto his body in a transparent bag with pockets. These were the Rambo knives, the switch-blade knives, and a barrage of dangerous knives and ninja kinds of implements.
This man was a moving store selling to anyone. I also saw those same weapons selling on the pave all over. I think many years ago one could have been locked up for carrying a dangerous weapon; I believe that law still exists but it seems as if all our laws are flouted daily.
Editor, I am calling on the Minister of Public Security and the Commissioner of Police to stop the sale of squibs, toy guns, masks, dangerous knives and all sorts of dangerous artillery that sells openly, in addition to pornographic DVDs.
It’s very sad when I see people trying to get rich quick by selling all kinds of evil things, and many unlicensed people selling all kinds of poison in the markets. With the rise of crime and suicide our administration should implement laws to ban all these things.
I have seen even sex toys, handcuffs and sado-masochistic sex apparatus selling openly in the markets and on the pave. What have we really become as a nation? I am also hoping that the police will remove all roadside loud music on Christmas Eve and Old Year’s night. Loud music has become an incessant nuisance and menace to our society.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
