Dear Editor,
Is our legal system too soft on crime?
The first role of any government is to provide for the safety of its citizens. What’s good and possible in a society springs from the shared sense that we won’t be victims in our homes and in our streets.
If a city doesn’t feel safe, it can’t grow or prosper. Right now too many people in our country are scared that the country is slipping backwards when it comes to crime.
Recently in our nation, there was an extraordinary case involving some teenagers who were sentenced to prison for killing a senior citizen. They received a very light sentence. All of them will be out prison before turning 30.
Meanwhile, long after the murderers are released from prison, the widow of the deceased will remain in a prison of her own grief.
Editor, we complain about the high crime rates and yet as society we are soft on crime.
Editor, it seems like the legal system in Guyana is more sympathetic to murderers than to their victims. Is it more forgiving of the young than the old? It’s more compassionate to the living than to the dead. It’s more willing give the perpetrators a second, third, and fourth chances.
Editor, as the widow sat in the courtroom and listened to the testimonies, I wonder what was going through her mind.
Was she angry? Did she agree with the sentences? Did she regret returning to live in Guyana? Did she see the convicted murderers as children, as the magistrate saw them?
Editor, children don’t kill people and make them suffer. Children don’t murder a grandfather or senior citizen.
As a nation we need to be more sympathetic to the victims and not to the perpetrators. We need to stop seeing children who kill people as children and victims.
Editor, now that her husband is gone, the widow is left alone to pick up the pieces. She will have to live the rest of her life without her spouse.
No one to grow old with and to go home to. No one to talk to. No one to help her and to tell her problems to. No one to worry about her and take care of her and to go on holidays with her.
Guyana is too soft on crime.
Here’s an example of a similar crime committed by a teenager in America and look at the difference in the sentencing between Guyana legal system and the American.
According to Fox News, Rapper Taymore “Tay-K” McIntyre was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his role in the 2016 shooting death of a Texas man during a robbery gone wrong.
McIntyre, who was just 16 at the time, was tried as an adult. Editor, please note: He was just 16 at the time of the crime.
Editor, by giving teen murderers a light sentence, it sends a wrong message to teenagers and the citizenry that our country is soft on crime.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Pantlitz
