The Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is investigating the trailing of Opposition Leader, Aubrey Norton by policemen last Monday after he visited the family of Quindon Bacchus at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
This was confirmed by Director of the force’s Corporate Communications Unit, Mark Ramotar in a brief statement issued yesterday afternoon.
“The Guyana Police Force’s Office of Professional Responsibility is currently investigating an incident following a social media post whereby ranks of the Police Force’s Regional Division 4’C’ allegedly followed the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Aubrey Norton on June 13th, 2022 after a visit he made at Golden Grove Market Street, East Coast Demerara,” the statement said.
Norton’s car was trailed by two cops on motorbikes last Monday after leaving the Golden Grove, ECD home of Bacchus, who was fatally shot by a policeman two Fridays ago.
Norton later stopped his vehicle and confronted them at which point they said they were simply “following instructions”.
Commissioner of Police (ag), Clifton Hicken had previously told Stabroek News that he was unaware that ranks from the GPF had trailed Norton.
When asked by Stabroek News on the sidelines of an event last night about whether an explanation of the exercise was provided to him and if he could say whose instructions the ranks were following, Hicken said the matter is being investigated by OPR.
“OPR is investigating the matter….That is OPR’s role to investigate when police do things out of the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures),” he said.
“….When I saw the recording (video), I instructed OPR to investigate the matter right away,” Hicken added.
Yesterday’s statement from the force is the first disclosure made to the media since the incident occurred.
Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn had last week described the police action as an “untidy, unnecessary and useless” exercise.
“It was an untidy, unnecessary and a useless exercise. ….We ain’t in the business of following anybody around like that and I am sure that the police, if they wanted to follow Mr Norton around would have better ways which are less obvious of following him around, if they ever wanted to follow him around,” Benn told Stabroek News in an invited comment.
Without divulging details, he said he engaged the force to determine whether it was necessary. “I saw some video…I did speak to the police people,” Benn said.
In a video posted on Facebook on Monday, June 13th, Norton was seen being followed by two masked ranks on motorcycles. The incident occurred sometime after 12 pm.
When Norton stopped his vehicle and confronted the ranks, they informed him they were only following orders. “Do you have the right to just drive behind me?” Norton asked and was told “Sir, Sir we are just following instructions,” by one of the ranks.
On this note, Norton said it was illegal for them to follow him when he hadn’t committed a crime.
“It is out of place for y’all to be driving behind people who did not commit (a) crime…You know you are violating my rights and you don’t have the right to do it because somebody tell you it was right to violate me,” Norton informed the ranks during a brief interaction.
At his press conference last Tuesday, Norton revealed that it was not only the two cops who followed him but as he was leaving Golden Grove he observed a police vehicle also trailing him.
“What happened when I left we saw a police vehicle and two motorbikes tracing us. When I saw that I stopped and they stopped. I came out and went to the police in the vehicle and I said to them why are you tracing me. If I stop, you stop. If I move, you move. I am not violating the law, I am a law-abiding citizen. Why are you following me?” Norton recalled.
He stated that his questions to the officer in the vehicle were unanswered and moments later the vehicle turned back.
However, Norton explained that as he returned to his vehicle and drove off, he recognized the policemen on the motorcycles following him.
In the vicinity of Coldingen, ECD he decided to turn in a bid to assess if the ranks were indeed following him. “And so I turn by Coldingen there and here it was the police again so I stopped and went to the police and said to them why are you following me?” he stated.
Norton stressed that from the response he got from the ranks, it appeared as if it was a decision from the hierarchy of the force. He stated that the officers kept riding behind him until he got home.
Openly intimidated
Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarran, in his Sunday Stabroek column said that Hicken was being “openly intimidated”.
“The Leader of the Opposition could not have been under surveillance by policemen in full regalia, including masks, following his vehicle on motorcycles. He was being openly intimidated in the identical manner that Cheddi Jagan was for several weeks during the Desmond Hoyte administration when two policemen on motorcycles followed him for weeks. Only Jagan’s public confrontation and a public outcry stopped it,” Ramkarran said.
According to Ramkarran, the police have “innumerable ways, less public, of intimidating the citizenry.”
