An investigation has been launched into the conduct of ranks at the Bartica Police Station after they failed to respond to call for help made by Minister of Youth Affairs, Simona Broomes.
Commander of ‘F’ Division Kevin Adonis, yesterday confirmed that an investigation is ongoing to determine what caused the delay in response by ranks.
During the wee hours of Monday morning, the minister said she made a call to the police for help but they failed to respond.
According to Broomes, she was at her home in Bartica, where she spent the weekend and was awakened by screams from a young lady at around 4.10 am. The minister said she went out on her verandah but couldn’t see anyone but kept hearing the cry for help from the nearby bushes.
In a live Facebook post on Monday, she said that she called the police and identified herself as the Minister of Youth Affairs and requested the police presence in the West Indian Housing Scheme to respond to someone’s cries for help. In response, the rank on the phone informed her that he would communicate with his superior and that someone will be sent.
However, in the live video post, the minister stated after an hour no one had showed up at the scene.
Broomes said at 5.15 am she decided to drive to the station and enquire why no one had showed up. She had noted that the area from where the woman in distress was found was only five minutes away from the station.
“Oh yeah, two girl just pulled up in a car and a police gone with them. Mussy the same matter that you are talking about,” was the response she received from the rank at the station.
Broomes said that during her visits to the township she would receive complaints from victims of abuse on the ranks’ lackadaisical approach to dealing with their reports.
“Young ladies are telling me, Minister, the police don’t come when you make a report. And I am telling them write a letter to the Commissioner [of Police Leslie James] and Minister of Public Security [Khemraj Ramjattan],” she said while calling on victims of abuse to speak out about their encounters with police.
“I want the Commissioner of Police to see this…I won’t keep quiet. I am not here to shh-shh. I have said it before I don’t have a cat spirit. I was telling you write but now I am the voice and I won’t lose this voice. I have been quiet for too long,” the minister declared.
The young woman related to the minister through a translator, that she left the bar with a man and after visiting his home he followed her to the road and took her valuables. Unfamiliar with the area, the young lady said she walked and arrived at a dead end. As she was trying to get out she fell into a hole and that was when she raised a cry for help.
