Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 06, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column
By Adam Harris
Many things bother me these days, and these are things that never used to happen in this country of my birth. A few days ago, I did an editorial that examined the presence of young criminals in the society. It is not that these are isolated cases. Rather, they are ever so common.
I recalled the very young gunmen who operated out of Buxton having chosen the older ones as their role models. It might have been that the academic level of these young people was such that they believed that they were as safe as a walk in the park. It might have been the guns that they got that caused them to develop an air of invincibility.
Someone should have told them that where there is a gun there is a bigger one. In the end, the bigger guns in professional hands prevailed. Many of them went to their graves before they even had a chance to live.
But if one thought that that was the end of the young gunmen, one had to think again. Ever since 2002 more and more young men, most of them in their teens emerged as criminals. I had cause to write that these days I see a huge number of young men who cannot read and write. I was advised to blame the education system. Then someone said that the parents are equally guilty.
It turns out that even the parents are illiterate and this is not going to help any situation. So it was that there have been the many others, right down to the sixteen-year-old who went to Mahaica to rob a gas station and was shot. I need not talk about the late Skinny and Cobra and so many others, including the one who shot and killed a man at Cool Square.
Two days ago I got even more disturbing news. The police in the city apprehended a young man who was carrying a cutlass in a scabbard inside his pants. What was he doing with such an implement? Was he preparing himself for any confrontation with his peers?
We do have a serious problem in this country. Schools have their fair share of these young men who would assault a teacher at the drop of a hat. Indeed, not all young men are bad but I have found that these have strong parents or keen extended families.
Why is this so? I do not have the answer. It cannot be that they are affected by poverty, because I know many poor people who see education and decency as a means out of whatever situation that may exist in at this time.
Recently I spoke with a mother about her son who had been coming to my home in my absence and picking up objects. The woman acknowledged that her son is a real problem. She said that his elder siblings and she have been talking to him about his ways, but to no avail. It is a sad day when a parent cannot control his or her child.
I had children of my own and never encountered such problems. They listened when I spoke and while they may not be the best, they never one day had me running to the courts.
Two days ago, an old woman who lived alone was killed in the bottom flat of her home. People suspect some very young men who were seen running away from the scene after ransacking the woman’s home. So we have another crop of young men who are now killers.
Late last year a group happened to be walking through the housing scheme created by the Joint Services. A young policeman challenged them and got shot dead for his efforts.
In some cases teachers do not help. Just this past week, I went to a city school—one of the leading schools in the country — where a male teacher behaved in a manner tantamount to criminal. He not only threatened the head teacher but he spoke loudly in the presence of the students that he would chop up a male teacher who crossed him.
As fate would have it, the intended victim was able to tell the children that no one should emulate that teacher as a role model.
Then there are others who embrace criminality. I know that there are people who believe that their protection lies in the hands of criminals. And once the pay is right there are many who would gravitate to criminal enterprise.
The Alliance For Change is certain that criminals picketed its office. I would not go so far but I do know that some of them did the picketing for a fee. It simply meant that there are many people who would do a master’s bidding for money. They see it as easy money and once there is a steady flow, these people do not see the need to seek employment.
Some of the people in the construction industry are complaining that they cannot get people to work There was a time when every young man went out in search of a job. Not so these days because somehow or the other, there are people who have use for those who are content to remain among the unemployed.
These are the people who see no need to join clubs or to become involved in social activity. Then they get older and find that they are no longer in demand for those who want to recruit young people for some criminal activity.
I wonder what it is going to be like in Guyana ten years hence, when the young criminals have grown and when they would be saddled with a lifestyle that is meaningless and one that would place them in direct conflict with the law enforcement authorities.
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