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Jul 14, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – I will not accept, now and into the future that a large number of drivers do not know that the Police Force does not stop drivers at random and request their documents. I have written about this harassment over a period of eight years.
Eight years will go back to 2013. For the past six years, two police commissioners, one acting commissioner, and three traffic chiefs have publicly stated through conspicuous coverage in the press that the police procedure for traffic conduct does not involve random stops.
There was an incident over random stops that was filmed and achieved national saturation. That incident and the coverage it got will convince me that there are a large number of drivers in this country that at the psychological level feel being a slave is not something that they find humiliating.
A video circulated all over Guyana where two actors were seen in the clip. Prominent Berbice attorney, Ryan Crawford, was seen berating a traffic cop using cuss-down vocabulary, asking the rank why he stopped him. The rank refused to tell Crawford why which was wrong. Both men acted improperly.
Crawford was given six charges. The traffic policeman was not disciplined or dismissed. Once Crawford requested the reason for the stop, the rank had to offer one even if it was whimsical or fictional but he had to offer one. There isn’t any Police Force in the world where the normal procedure is simply to request a driver to pull over.
Once that is done, the citizen should ask the reason and the reason has to be given. Of course, the policeman could be lying by citing a weird reason but he has to offer one. In the video, Crawford is seen cussing. But he is also recorded as repeatedly requesting the reason for being pulled over. In the clip, the rank refuses to answer Crawford. For more on this incident see my two columns; Monday September 17, 2018, “Me, Justice Donald Trotman, Superintendent Kissoon and the police” and Tuesday September 25, 2018, “Ryan “Effing” Crawford threw away his rights.”
People all over Guyana with a smart phone were curious to see that video. From thereon, drivers had to know that the police are not permitted to wave their hand at the car, stop you and demand to see your vehicular papers.
This is 2021 and here we go again. The Traffic Chief in May this year issued a public notice to the Police Force and the entire country. In plain, simple language, he notified Guyana that the police are not allowed to bring vehicles to a halt to see the documents.
Now in yesterday’s papers, there is a letter under the signature Colin Gill in which he points to the occurrence of routine/random instruction. He wrote that since the Traffic Chief’s emanation, he saw routine halts outside Providence Police Station and at Friendship.
I spoke to the officer in charge of the Providence Station, Asst. Superintendent London. He said he is not allowed to speak to the media and I need to contact his superior who is Asst. Superintendent Shiwnarine. He indicated that since the Traffic Chief advisory of May, he has instructed his ranks not to indulge in random stops.
As a columnist entering 33 years of service, I am literally fed up writing about mistreatment of ordinary customers by all the commercial banks. After I quoted what the President of Guyana said to me and my publicised chat with the Governor of the Bank of Guyana, I thought that violation and abuse would have ceased.
I like to remind you that I have been penning exposures of this harassment of ordinary customers for 10 years now just like random stops. After those 10 years, I am completely fed up with penning columns condemning random stops. Customers at the banks do not have the space to manouevre as drivers do. If the bank rejects the certificate of vehicular fitness as proof of address then your transaction cannot be processed.
In the case of drivers, all they have to do is gently say to the policeman that the Traffic Chief instructed that random stops cannot be made and you would like to know then why he/she is stopping you. Why are drivers afraid to ask this simple question? Maybe they have a slavish mentality.
If you are a victim of a random stop by traffic ranks, please call me on my cell at 614-5927 or email me at [email protected]. Don’t be stupid or asinine or imbecilic and tell me that you were stopped but you don’t want your name mentioned. Stop hiding under your mother’s dirty petticoat.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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