Ramjattan, Top Cop blame media for creating perception of crime surge

Dec 19, 2016 News

“The crime wave is created in the minds of people, because emblazoned on the front pages of the newspapers are all these crimes….” – Ramjattan

Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan has rejected suggestions that Guyana is in the grip of a new ‘crime wave,’ and blamed the media for creating this perception.
“No, we are not (into a crime wave),” the Public Security Minister told Kaieteur News last Friday.
“The crime wave is created in the minds of people, because emblazoned on the front pages of the newspapers are all these crimes.
“Guyana always used to have crimes,” Ramjattan added, while conceding that these recent attacks on citizens are ‘troubling’.
“Do you know what the crime rate in New York is? Do you see every day, in the New York Times, emblazoned on the front pages, a brutal, bloody murder?”
While explaining that he was not suggesting that the media ‘duck’ the reports, Ramjattan said the media should also publish the police statistics, which show a reduction in serious crimes.
“Nobody wants to believe the statistics…and that is the danger in a democratic society, where there is complete disbelief coming as a result of what is happening by the media, and as a result of the media, and I feel that there is an element of some irresponsibility.”

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan

Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud

Speaking to reporters on Friday at the ‘A’ Division Awards Ceremony, Commissioner of Police, Seelall Persaud also insisted that the Force’s statistics which show a drop in crime are accurate.
“Whenever we receive reports, they are entered into a system, an electronic platform and the ability to change that, is only at certain responsible levels.”
Like Ramjattan, he blamed the media’s daily highlighting of crime for the public’s skepticism about the Force’s statistics.
“Every day you are seeing on the front pages that armed robberies and murders are being committed.”
Recent violent attacks include the armed robbery committed on a female Tower Hotel employee; the gunning down by robbers of recently-wed, 27-year-old Matthew Scott; the attack on 29-year-old contractor John Brian, who was pursued, shot and robbed of $3M in the Ministry of Finance compound, and the military-style robbery at the home of Berbice cambio dealer, Devendra Churama, by assault-rifle toting men who allegedly escaped with $21M.
In 2002, criminals unleashed an unprecedented wave of violence that included robberies, execution style killings of civilians and lawmen, three massacres, extra-judicial slayings, drug-related murders and kidnappings, and disappearances.
The ‘crime wave’ ended some six years later, but left a trend of violence and brazen robberies that has continued to this day.

Cambio dealer Devendra Churama

Shot dead: Matthew Scott

Shot and robbed: Contractor John Brian

In addressing the crime situation, the Top Cop said that crime is a social problem and a law enforcement solution can never work comprehensibly to treat crime.
For this reason, Persaud said that the Guyana Police Force has started a number of partnership programmes throughout the country.
“We need public trust; we need partners within the communities that can assist us in dealing with crime.”
“To deal with crime, we need to find social solutions. We have to improve on what is happening on the level of family… at the level of education…at the level of religion and we need to improve what is happening at the level of communities,” the commissioner said.
He related that it is a community that develops a child and the community should take recognition for the good things and take the blame for the bad things that an individual does on attaining adulthood.
Kaieteur News was told that the justice system is involved only when that individual has already become bad, hence, the police’s crime prevention programme is designed to intervene prior to and break the cycle of every generation producing a criminal.
Persaud said that the response to the crime prevention programme has been very good so far.
“We started without budget and we provided leadership.”
With respect to the serious crimes statistics, he added that ‘A’ Division accounts for over 50 percent that occur in the country, and as a result, the division received the biggest chunk of the resources last year.
“I chair a performance group meeting every fortnight where all the commanders, divisional and branch commanders meet and they account for the use of those resources in meeting, the Force’s goals and objectives,” he said.
He added that they practice what is called collective thinking, where, if a commander is facing a problem in one area, brainstorming takes place and the experiences of the other commanders are brought to the table.
Kaieteur News was told when that decision is implemented the commanders would report on the result.