Dear Editor,
Over the years, I’ve been lucky to see videos of citizens expressing their dissatisfaction towards members of the Guyana Police Force whilst the Police are executing their duties, and as each video emanates, you also see the anger of the perpetrators also evolve, and sometimes with encouragement from onlookers.
Some of those videos showed altercations with people under the influence, and some people were seemingly just frustrated. The latest video of the Police who was physically assaulted on Tuesday, May 31, is pretty much horrific to see the officer falling and stumbling. Added to that, listening to the onlookers, one could safely say that they are quite pleased with the way the officer was dealt with.
Editor, over the years, I’ve repeatedly written that the officers need better training and projects to help them interact with the public. We have grown accustomed to waiting for disaster to strike and then rushing to the drawing board, instead of finding preventative measures. It’s no secret that many officers’ actions towards dealing with the public are questionable, and society would not sit idly by and allow advantage to consciously be taken.
In rare cases, you will hear of an officer being penalised for his/her action, and sometimes justice is not being served to satisfy the victimised, thus anger spreads and builds up. Again, with the newfound wealth and attention being given to Guyana, it’s already started attracting people from all over the world, and some of these countries have high crime rates.
Trinidad is such an example, and without any proper mechanism in place, no doubt the foreigners will get a listening ear to share their knowledge/experience. What sort of training do the members of the Police Force have? Their own colleague seems to be seriously injured, and he was left alone to walk, stumble and fall. We have a long way to go, when will we start?
Sincerely,
Sahadeo Bates
