OPINION: Police ‘sewage’ saturates all Guyana

Last Updated on Thursday, 13 June 2019, 11:29 by Writer

by GHK Lall

There is this article in the Stabroek News of June 13th, titled, “Another police rank speaks on corrupt practices in force” that says so much about here. A dirty plot thickens and darkens; many such plots. All the sewage ingredients are there: murder; coverup; de lil fine change of a cool million; de “boss man;” mole(s); another man setup; and the public fixed up and f—-d up. Again. This is the real Guyana. Bottom line Guyana.

This much is now undeniable: in spades: All of the above are fundamentals and essentials and vitals of the Guyana Police Service. It is servicing itself. Everything (except one) now making the public rounds in an ongoing exposé of the criminalization of the force. It is a force for wrongdoing, dedicated to evildoing. I welcome any conscientious objectors (clean ones, of course). Murders left unsolved and murderers walking free are accepted elements of police work and public fears and insecurities. It is as regular as rains in May/June, and as irrefutable as racial elections. A million (or many more) is demanded or offered, collected and pocketed many times at many levels. It goes a high way. This cannot be, is not, of mere Corporals; victims and public are continuously injured; please spare the insults of evading or contesting. The cash is there. Given. Collected. Believed. Settled. Delivered. Next, felony and next, murder. These men in stripes and stars should be subjected to very harsh treatment. There is a problem: manpower and materiel constraints. Too many to deal with; for the “boss man” is omnipresent; there are all over, as in many of them. Just ask the real big fishes, who have law enforcement affairs to untangle. The other guys-minibus men, macho small fry, and assorted mobsters-all proudly boast of their friendly, neighborhood police assets.

All of the above are such a normal part of police routine that they are taken for granted, with fitful anger and dismayed resignation. It is what it is: culture, political legacies, institutional rot, individual and collective stink. This is amidst the senior jackasses braying about sensationalism and headlines and overblown and strides made. What strides? To cut a real fine point, I must question (perhaps unfairly and irresponsibly) whether there is credibility to awards and best this and that encomia. I may have sullied the authentic and devoted, and for that I apologize unreservedly. Still, I wonder whether anything about the Guyana Police Force holds water these days. Too much dirty money; too many loaded crooks; too many crooked cops. I had asked before if there was one completely clean cop in this country. I struggle with the same question, which I place in the public domain again.

And in the midst of all of this, the tale is still not done. For with the latest revelation in the article in SN’s June 13 edition, there is that suspected monster now taking shape to frighten even further. It is of an innocent man made to be the fall guy for a previous murder rearranged. Whoever that accused is, he is most likely neither unfamiliar with felonies nor a saint. But an engineered capital charge takes matters into impenetrable waters. That man is not the only one. That charge could not have had one police author alone. That means a whole lot of people and evidence and circumstances colluded and were made to converge for a predetermined outcome. This is the pits.

These are the guardians of the law? Why, they couldn’t be trusted with guarding garbage. Nobody has to be a conspiracy theorist; this is raw living in Guyana. A sewage of a service, rebaptized but still of the devil. It is the rankness of a society that should have trouble smelling itself and standing itself, but doesn’t. This is the place that extols about democracy and local content and truth. There is naked and ravaged truth. What the hell! We can’t even emerge from the primordial swamp and cave; barbarians in treetops. Darwin’s detritus.

I watch to see how all that is coming down is going to go down. The brass is silent. As de saying guh in Guyana: de ass shuud bee graaas. Quite frankly, I do not see much coming out from all of this. A man (or two) will be charged; a case languish before the courts (another police equivalent); some people shuffled around; and then it will be Christmas and caroling and great good cheer. Joy to Guyana. What is there not to love about any of this?

Mr. GHK Lall is a Guyanese author, columnist and former financial analyst on Wall Street.