Dear Editor,
Today it is a very senior officer; from almost all the way to the top one is sent on leave. Very frightening. Yet this is not unheard of in the annals of crimefighting in this country.
In other times, other very senior officers among the high command of the Guyana Police force have been identified quietly and tainted by the broad inerasable paint of corrupt practices. This has not been about a small bribe (a few measly thousands) for, say, a driver’s licence, or the waiver of some misdemeanor. That is for all the other little guys seeking to gain a foothold in the rich police rackets that are now a virtual tsunami of cash and runaway rogueries. No, it is not, what Guyanese would call, fine change.
Rather, it has been the sweeping tidal wave of narcotics money and money laundered (and some not yet) utilized to get a whole lot done. Nothing is unfixable. Not a firearm licence for the questionable; not a felony; not murder. It might be safe to say that even treason is negotiable and a deal worked out. For cash. This law enforcement radioactivity goes deep and, from all indications, has irreversibly contaminated the widest swathe of the thin blue line. In fact, I would venture that institutional radioactivity has now overwhelmed what stands between society and lawlessness. I would venture further that it is that massive lawlessness that menaces society beyond even what it can even contemplate.
I would assert that corruption in the GPF goes so deep and is so impenetrably thick that no one (not even the police brass itself) has any idea as to how catastrophic is the problem, really what is clearly a profound disaster, not in the making, but one in already settled existence. This I believe; so, too, do almost all rational observers and citizens. This is not about mere passports nor fitness certificates nor noise nuisances. Even though each of those have their going price, and their known prospering participants, again that is chicken feed. In and of themselves, those runnins may appear to be innocuous; after all, they don’t kill people. But look carefully, and ask if that is really so, when the bigger picture is considered, when those same police issued tools are used either to murder or maim or to cover up same.
Now, in a number of media reports on June 26th, His Excellency, President David Granger was prompted to go on the offensive. He is quoted as saying that, “There are not many but those few have given the Police Force a bad name.” I most humbly and respectfully beg to differ with the president, and heavily so. It is past the time for political stewards (new and old) to call a thoroughly flea-bitten, rabies-infested dog for what it really is: an almost terminally diseased creature. One of national import and gravity; one that has political parentage, too.
Still, and once again, political overseers have stepped forward to sugarcoat the acute fears and paralyzing terrors of the Guyanese people through the minimalism of “the not many but the few” bad apples. That wishful thinking, that widely disbelieved and now mocked fairytale portrays matters in carefully guarded light. I do understand that leaders run a great risk by calling things as they are, with the result of throwing the GPF under the bus, so to speak, thus rendering political chiefs vulnerable to backlash through apathy. But this is the reality; this is truth; this is the sum of all of Guyana’s fears. That is irrefutable.
It is irrefutable because the exact opposite of “the not many but the few” is incontestably accurate. That is, the many not the few give the GPF a bad name, a real bad name. This is harrowing to absorb; but this is what is being lived with daily, if not hourly by society. The GPF knows this. Citizens know this. And all politicians great and small know this. Political correctness and tactful language only make matters immeasurably worse. I must wonder how many felonious officers are smirking at and cheering their good fortune.
Because no crime is not up for negotiation for the injustice of out-of-court and out-of-prison settlement. On the one hand, the government has registered some inroads with the scourges of drug trafficking and money laundering. On the other, a most crucial arm of the same government is suspected of lucrative involvement in get out of jail arrangements. There are the usual covers: missing or unreliable witnesses (deliberate); missing or shoddy evidentiary chains (purposely); and overall investigations and people that miss the mark by wide margins (intentionally). Self-help with drug seizures; shakedowns of and collections from serial felons; stables of networks to get things done on the side, including the ultimate: executions. Where does it end? This is police truth.
Murder and trafficking and laundering are the big time; the more visible and opulent part of the pyramid of crimefighting in Guyana. This is the real canvas of policing in Guyana; and it must be pinpointed for what it is.
I close with remarks attributed to President Granger, “We have to rebuild public trust and I am confident that we have a team of men and women who are going to rebuild public trust.” That is disconcerting. To the president I say without equivocation: the team is too thin; it is just not there in the numbers and calibres desperately needed. And it is a long, dangerous, uphill road to even start to rebuild that public trust. For emphasis: to even start to rebuild that public trust. I respectfully disagree with the president. I disbelieve. All Guyana knows that this is immovable ground.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
