Fighting crime in 2005
Editorial
Kaieteur News
January 4, 2005
In his New Year's Day message, President Bharrat Jagdeo made two commitments to show that crime fighting remains a top priority for his administration in 2005; now he needs to ensure that they are fulfilled in a timely manner.
The President has made a commitment to spare no resource to equip the Guyana Police Force with the tools needed to combat crime, a declaration he made earlier to the Commissioner of Police. He also made a commitment to intensify the fight against drug-trafficking by setting up a special unit to go after `drug houses' and drug dealers in the communities.
The President stressed that the government and the police cannot fight crime alone and need the support of all communities. To get the necessary community support, both government and the police need to act in a way that boosts public confidence and engages their active support. Yet a vital area remains a weak point for which both government and the police have often been roundly criticized.
For example, in recent weeks many citizens publicly expressed their anxiety over the fact that Parliament's work on the Disciplined Forces Commission's (DFC) reform recommendations had stalled. It certainly does not inspire public confidence when reforms with such an important bearing on fighting crime become frozen a year after they were first submitted to the House and four months after they had been unanimously accepted.
Many persons are particularly concerned about the lack of progress in upgrading the police force, which the House had agreed to treat as a priority. Hopefully, President Jagdeo's pledge to fully equip the police to combat crime means that he will use his influence to expedite the DFC reforms. As leader of the party commanding a significant majority in Parliament, the President is ideally placed to jump-start the process of implementing the long overdue modernisation of the police force.
As regards the relations between the police and the public, there is no doubt that the force under Commissioner Felix has put a lot of work into improving and expanding community outreach programmes. But relations between the police and certain communities --- chiefly depressed communities in which police need to establish strong crime-intelligence links --- remain strained.
In such areas, it will take a lot more time and effort to overcome well-entrenched resentment of the police. Therefore, it is essential that the special drug unit the President spoke of must be highly trained in community relations, lest they follow the path of infamous predecessors like the “Black Clothes” squad.
It should now be clear to everyone that of all crimes, drug-related crimes has done the most damage to the fabric of society and the rule of law in Guyana. There continues to be evidence of this; international police intercepted multi-million US dollar shipments of cocaine in timber and rice from Guyana to the United Kingdom during last year. Once the major players in the Guyana drug trade continue to thrive, they will spawn countless criminal minions who will continue to prey on decent people for the foreseeable future.
It is no secret that it is extremely difficult, in some cases impossible, to charge and prosecute these drug barons in Guyana. The justice system in this country is so seriously flawed that in all likelihood, prosecutors of high-profile drug cases would be hopelessly outgunned and trial bedeviled by a host of other problems. Even in lesser cases, our courts have seen a wide range of evils that undermine the fairness of justice they are supposed to administer. These include interminable delays in trial dates, indecisive witnesses as well as disappearing police and court files.
At this time, Guyana simply lacks the crime fighting resources, infrastructure and law enforcement capabilities to deal with high level drug crimes. Since the drug trade in Guyana is invariably connected to narco-crime in more developed nations, in accelerating the fight against crime, President Jagdeo would do well to strengthen government and police interaction with foreign countries and international drug-fighting agencies.
Fighting against crime and the drug trade in 2005 should include the fullest co-operation with overseas authorities to compile solid evidence against the major players in the drug trade here, who might be beyond the reach of local police, or immune to prosecution, thanks to Guyana's notoriously flawed justice system.