Dear Editor,
Last Friday, January 27, 4 young boys were arrested from their homes. These are boys between the ages of 18 and 21 and they were arrested because two teenage girls were missing and they were Facebook friends with a couple of the boys. Now it is not that they were arrested that matters; it is how they were arrested. Police fully armed and in their Tactical Services attire swarmed the home of one of them and were very bold in their arrest of a young boy who did not know what was happening. This uncivilized behaviour of the police must stop.
The two girls were found the next day in a home in New Amsterdam not connected to any of the four boys.
A magistrate ordered the return of the driver’s licence of a man charged with causing death by dangerous driving after the trial lasted for over three years. After several attempts, the man’s driver’s licence still has not been released.
This Traffic Chief has done nothing to stop the madness on the roads in Berbice. One of the most dangerous happenings on the road is cyclists riding without lights on their bikes, and even after I offered to assist the police with that nothing is being done to stop the lawlessness.
Private cars that ply the roads as ‘hire’ cars do so with impunity. Some of those cars are owned by police and Mr Persaud is unable to stop the lawlessness? One should ask how come a policeman can afford to buy a car?
Cars with very dark tints and fancy number plates continue to drive fear in the minds of the people of Berbice and Guyana as a whole. This practice must be stopped. The law is the law and must apply to all impartially. The law cannot be seasonal so that when the police are in the mood they will just haul in some cars and minibuses and hold them for a day, and then the same thing happens again a year or two later. The law is a present, continuous thing. The police must be more vigil and the ‘lefʼ or write’ attitude must end.
Editor, there are stray-catchers on the roads put in place by the former government (the PPP/C), and I was shocked a few weeks ago when stray-catchers who were moving some animals in the East Canje area were attacked by men on horseback and the animals ran away. No one has been apprehended. This lawlessness must stop.
I wish to close by asking the Minister of National Security, to put his foot down and bring even a senior police officer to account for the lawlessness. If we cannot stop the small crimes how can we tackle the major ones?
Yours faithfully,
Charrandass Persaud, MP
