Last month the issue of vigilantism and justice was once again brought sharply into focus when police charged no less a personage than a regional councillor and two other persons for allegedly murdering a young fisherman, who attempted to snatch a shoulder bag from a young lady.
Public violence is becoming an unhealthy recurring theme, as groups of citizens attempt to apprehend and punish alleged criminals, mostly burglars and pickpockets, before involving the Guyana Police Force.
Vigilante ‘justice’ in Guyana is a very serious offence as our laws prohibit the taking of another person’s life, except in cases of self-defence and other forms of “Justifiable or excusable homicide” as defined in our Criminal Law (Offences) Act. The Guyana Police Force has, in the past, warned citizens against dispensing mob justice, and President David Granger just last year cautioned that anyone taking part in vigilante justice would be breaking the law.
Despite these warnings and pleadings by the authorities, the violent and summary dispatch of alleged (mostly petty) criminals continues to occur from time to time. In May 2013 vigilantes in Sophia beat an alleged thief to death, and then attempted to burn his body while it was tied to a lamp post, pointing to a grotesque and sadistic predisposition on the part of the perpetrators.
As we have posited before in these columns, the rise of vigilantism in Guyana can be attributed to a longstanding and ongoing problem – namely, the state’s woefully inadequate and unstructured response to societal order and internal security demands. It is possible too, that the GPF’s apparent unwillingness, or inability to aggressively prosecute those involved in the vigilante killings of alleged criminals, might stem from the awareness of its own impotence with respect to making inroads into the reduction of violent crimes.
Repeated promises of police sector reforms, including boosting the number of policemen and building stronger relationships with communities and other long-term fixes do nothing to address the immediacy of the problem of crime and violence, and this leaves a frustrated public quite willing to vent its collective frustration on whichever lower level criminals they can capture, inflicting what they consider to be appropriate punishment.
Over the years Community Policing Groups have been organized in an effort to secure the safety of their own communities, and while the previous government placed great emphasis on these state-sponsored groups, they appear to have gone into decline. There were in any case complaints about improper behaviour or improper use of vehicles and equipment on the part of some of their members, and in general they have made little impact on the security situation.
Vigilante groups usually act without official sanction and their appearance is usually a sign of a lack of confidence in the authorities to provide basic security to a community. Back in January 2014, it was reported that some Corentyne villagers had formed themselves into vigilante groups to take back their village from criminal gangs following a spate of robberies in the village. At the time, residents severely criticized the Guyana Police Force and the justice system for not doing enough to protect them.
Their model of vigilantism was designed around night patrols and increased surveillance, acting within the confines of the law. It was a demonstration of ‘people power’ and the right of the individual in securing life, limb and property. What was described in the news reports did not involve any law-breaking, mob-style violence or taking the law into their own hands, and they therefore served as a good example of what can be achieved with a well modelled approach to community policing.
However, the fact that the community felt compelled to go in the direction of unauthorised vigilante groups to secure their neighbourhoods also illustrated the dramatic escalation in the tension and fear that existed in the community. Residents were signalling to the authorities that the crime wave had become so untenable that they intended to take back their community, even if it required temporarily arrogating to themselves the responsibilities of the GPF such as protection.
Over the years, there has been much concern in Guyana over the rising crime rate and especially the slow police response to tackling crimes in progress, that even the modest successes currently being achieved by the GPF in the areas of crime detection and investigation have not been sufficient to significantly reduce the angst within the society. With each instance of vigilante justice, a segment of society undergoes a brief catharsis with justice being considered served.
What is worrying is that this culture of vigilante justice has been allowed to grow and fester by both the authorities and law-abiding citizens who are afraid to speak out against it for fear of seeming to be in support of the criminals.
What allegedly happened at Ruby, East Bank Essequibo has happened before. Cases include the alleged murders of Seon Clarke at Pearl, East Bank Demerara in August 2016 and Levi Jamal Alleyne at Enterprise also in August 2016. There was also the assault on two men at North Rumiveldt and, as mentioned above, the infamous beating and burning of Nigel Lowe at Sophia in May 2013.
Whether some vigilante groups and the spontaneous mobs that form around the capture of an alleged criminal are being hijacked by individuals with more violent tendencies than the norm, resulting in these excesses, we cannot know. But if the GPF properly investigates these crimes and uses the media to disseminate their findings this can result in a more informed public opinion on vigilante killings, and might help to discourage the practice of bludgeoning alleged criminals to death. The rule of law ought not to be replaced by the rule of the streets.
While government has come out in condemnation of vigilante justice, the administration has much more work to do to ensure that our established criminal justice system is functioning and that the police have the required training and motivation and are properly equipped with the skills and resources needed to respond appropriately to crime in all its forms.
