Dear Editor,
It is alarming to read in SN and KN of a prosecutor’s home being fired upon by gunmen. I search my memory, and fail to come across a single precedent for such a circumstance, which endangered not only the prosecutor himself, but also his spouse and a relative. This is, indeed, unvoyaged waters for Guyana; such doesn’t happen here, but in dangerous places like Mexico and Columbia and Pakistan, among others. As I weigh the prosecutor’s situation, I ponder over what he could have done in the performance of his duties not only as a representative of the Guyana Police Force, but of the people and state, taken as a whole. Regardless, going after a prosecutor, and actually targeting his home and family, convey how far pervasive criminal elements are prepared to go in this lawless society. Every public pronouncement goes to great lengths to relay that serious crime is down and, though only a single instance, what happened in Craig crossed to the far, dark side.
For, if an agent of the state and an officer of the law (court) can be so carefully selected, scouted and stalked, and then shot at, then the bar is being raised, or eliminated, as to what was completely unthinkable and undoable. By this I mean: who is untouchable? It is what the aura of the law cloaks with, the unspoken, unbreachable, and extraordinary shields that are part of the armour of prosecutors and judges, sometimes, even rogue practitioners in that realm. Editor, we are all familiar with the record of police officers falling in the line of duty. It was an occurrence that took hold early in this millennium, and gained some victims with some senior officers taken out. But the point is that rogue cops suffered in seething silence. Sticking with the police, one of its central locations was incinerated, and issues about integrity in the force at all levels, and public confidence in the institution and its people proliferate. The Brickdam fire aside, such never results in taking the law into one’s own hands. More pointedly, private business arrangements and related differences between citizens and police officers rarely deteriorate into gunfire, since both have too much skin in the game. Other ways are found to settle matters. On the other hand, if citizens (police officers, media presences, dissenters and undesirables) cross path and get in the way of the powerful and criminal, then increasingly means are found to: 1) intimidate; 2) send messages; 3) silence; or 4) liquidate. In closing, the question remains: who could be responsible?
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
