The police have lost completely, all control of our traffic situation

Mar 24, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor

I refer to a letter from the Member of Parliament Ms. Annette Ferguson captioned “Increases in road accidents appear to be the result of negligible enforcement of the Motor Vehicles Act amendments 2023 and 2024” SN 17^th March 2025.

Whilst I wholeheartedly praise and applaud the letter written by the MP, I read the letter twice and did not see where the honourable member states that she presented her complaints/questions to the National Assembly, the date it was formally laid there, and the information contained in the responses, which the appropriate Minister is obligated to answer truthfully by law. If the minister does not reply, then the Honourable member is fully entitled to inform the public.

Editor, the police have lost completely, all control of our traffic situation, as I also believe that they have lost all ability to enforce our laws in general. In the newspaper on 3/22.25, a criminal in court, threatened the police with “Y’all dead! I gon’ kill all of y’all!” These developments indicate a failed Police Force.

To see the current Traffic Chief in the media appealing to the public to be more courteous on the road is, in my opinion, a useless activity on the Chief’s part. I prefer to see him getting his traffic ranks mobilised aggressively on the road daily, forcing our completely lawless citizens to abide by the traffic regulations. This has gone too far now for begging the public to be more careful, testosterone is ruling the road in Guyana now, not good sense or the road regulations.

Enforcing the law rigidly must now take precedence over begging for good sense to prevail, and the claims of discrimination made by many commentators, should be echoed by public outrage. Let the police control the Force and stop this alleged systematic destruction of the upper echelons of the Force to control it politically. It’s not working, and on questioning many members of the Force, I get the distinct impression that they only report to work and use up the hours looking for a ‘freck’ on the street, reinforcing the allegations of discrimination by Paul Slowe et al. Most of our police have downed tools, disillusioned and demotivated, since it is their firm belief that political sponsorship for promotions is making them unable to advance in that job by fearlessly enforcing the law. It’s hardly a situation conducive to dedicated police work at any level and in all departments. Our system of police prosecutors is also very archaic and ineffective and should be overhauled with a more qualified and dedicated public prosecutor system, US example. There was even a letter in KN written by one Halim Khan head of the Region 3 private sector captioned “recognising dedicated police ranks for promotion.”
Mr. Khan makes a very telling statement about ranks who have only just graduated and are being promoted to corporal just months after entering the Force, when high performing ranks with several years of experience are not being promoted.

Other questions which I would like the Honourable Member Ferguson to ask are: “1. How many Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese are currently employed in the Force as constables? 2. How many by that same ethnic difference are Corporals, Sergeants, Inspectors, Superintendents etc.? 3. How many Indo-Guyanese have entered the Police Force within the past 5 years?” When answered if the percentage of ethnic differences in the higher ranks does not match the ethnic composition of the constable level, then the case of discrimination can very easily be made as the majority of commentators in this country are alleging, the names alone will identify them, e.g. Singh v Smith. The entire situation is just unacceptable, imagine a police officer with 500 million in his bank account, with allegations that other corrupt senior ranks are also huge property owners!

Sincerely

Tony Vieira

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The police have lost completely, all control of our traffic situation

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