Dear Editor,
I read a letter by Audreyanna Thomas in your respected newspaper, captioned ‘Police should stop disgracing the uniform they wear’. After reading the letter, I have a few questions for the writer.
What Audreyanna Thomas wrote about is public knowledge. Everyone and their pet knows about this disease of police taking bribes in Guyana. It is also public knowledge that most people have smartphones in Guyana.
With that said, my questions are: why didn’t the writer approach the bribe-taking cops? Why didn’t she record them taking a bribe on her smartphone? (I don’t know Audreyanna Thomas, but I’m pretty sure that she has a smartphone.) Why didn’t she go to the closest police station to report what she saw? Why didn’t she get the licence plate number of the motorcycles that these officers were riding?
I agree with her for approaching the ‘bribe-giver’. And her reason for so doing. She wrote, “‘I saw you giving the policeman a bribe.’ Of course the person was in shock and they responded, ‘Yes I did’. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again; if you keep doing this, our country will never get better.’” It made me chuckle after reading that. Her outrage is with the bribe-giver? Why?
Let me reiterate: I understand her reason for approaching the ‘victim’ but she should have approached the perpetrators! Let them know that they are being watched. And that, in my opinion, is what will make Guyana “get better”.
Yours faithfully,
Nicholas De Castro
