Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 20, 2012 Editorial
The police are there to serve and to protect the people. They are the buffer between a stable society and anarchy because in every society there are the deviants. There are those who would steal from the law abiding, torch people’s property and even kill. While the police more often than not cannot stop these things, they are there to ensure that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
Given its land mass and it paucity of police ranks the force is constantly on the search for people who would undertake the motto of “Serve and protect.” The recruits are expected to be carefully scrutinised and properly trained before they are deployed into the society.
However, in recent times, we have noticed that despite the best efforts of the Guyana Police Force rogue elements often infiltrate the force. It is said that some people are unblemished when they enter the force but become corrupt through association. These are the people who are invited to eye the property of others and to do everything possible to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
We have had repeated reports of policemen loaning out their firearms to criminals for a fee; we have seen policemen fleecing people on the streets and we have policemen who actually don their criminal gear at the
end of their work day.
Drug dealers have been a magnet for the corrupt police ranks to the extent that many have recruited policemen to offer protection. The most famous of them was Shaheed ‘Roger’ Khan who literally had a phalanx of policemen in his employ. Some of these ranks worked as enforcers, using their uniform as a cover and to good effect.
If the target fails to heed then the police ranks would invoke the rule of law and the issue then becomes one for the state.
In other cases, though, policemen have been known to operate as common criminals. They have been known to force their way into homes to rob people and even kill before escaping. In Canje, Berbice, the residents are of the firm view that policemen have conducted robberies while the patrol vehicles kept a safe distance away only to turn up after it was clear that the perpetrators have long fled the scene.
One resident actually identified a policeman who turned up to investigate as one of the people who robbed her.
These things happen because in the first instance the police are drawn from the very society; are people who did not qualify for other sections of the job market and only joined the force as a last resort. Where possible, and with the supporting evidence, the force would act. Many ranks have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Last year, the Guyana Police Force reported that more than fifty of the ranks were criminally prosecuted, some for demanding inducements to pervert the course of justice. A few have been caught committing crimes and dealt with. However, it is here that things get murky. Generally, when one runs afoul of the law or breaches the codes of the Guyana Police Force, that person is summarily dismissed.
In the case of senior ranks, the Police Service Commission would act and in the case of the lower ranks, the Police Commissioner would use his powers to terminate the service of the errant ranks. But there have been policemen who, despite flagrant breaches of the law, have been able to return within the fold of the police force.
The most recent was the now dead Marlon Letlow who aided and abetted killers for a fee. He was arrested and charged twice. The nation was shocked when it learnt that he was back as a serving policeman. Old habits die hard and so it was that he was said to have embarked on a robbery at a mining camp. He was shot.
Did the then Police Commissioner Henry Greene reinstate him? Was he reinstated by the current Commissioner Leroy Brumell? Whatever the case, this was most disturbing and the fact that two policemen went on a robbery has done nothing to enhance the reputation of the Guyana Police Force. Everyone knows that the police force needs all the burnishing it could get.
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