Four African American youths, three teenagers and an adult, face felony charges in Chicago for the alleged kidnapping and assault of an 18-year-old white, mentally challenged man, which they videotaped and uploaded to YouTube.
Added to the charges of aggravated battery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated unlawful restraint is a hate crime charge.
Following the assault, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, “Tonight, four individuals have felt the consequences of their actions”, and several US political leaders condemned the attack, including President Barack Obama who called it “despicable”.
Some Americans have been critical of the hate crime charge, but the four suspects were heard clearly on the videotape referring to their victim as “white” while they carried out their assault making it a clear case of hate crime, a crime that involves attacks perpetrated against a group rather than an individual person. In this case, it was African Americans perpetrating an assault on the white community.
This entire incident stands in stark contrast to what obtains in Guyana when such crimes occur. There is no local hate crime legislation, but given the 50 years and counting of ethnic violence, there should be specific laws to deal with these particular types of assaults.
There are laws, however, that covers assaults, arson, rape, robbery and murder yet since the 1960s when the first outbreak of open violence against the Indian Guyanese community surfaced – the motivation being to oust Premier Cheddi Jagan from Office – hardly anyone has ever been brought to justice and suffered any consequences.
The fact that in our racially divided society, the attacks always have both racial and political components, that in no way absolve the perpetrators or make their crimes less heinous. Unlike the condemnation in the US, here attacks on Indian Guyanese – often accompanied by racial pejoratives – are actually justified and approved by most of the African Guyanese community.
From 1998 onwards, following the 1997 general elections, the ethnic attacks escalated then solidified in Buxton Village which became the command centre for the assaults, rapes, kidnappings, robberies and murders that threw a wide net over the Indian Guyanese villages along the East Coast in particular.
In fact, in January 1998, PNC Leader Desmond Hoyte stated publicly at Cuffy Square that the armed forces are the PNC’s “kith and kin”. Keeping Indians cornered and afraid has always been part of their political strategy and, in its 23 years of Government, the PPP/C instituted no reforms.
Very few African Guyanese ever condemn attacks on Indian Guyanese. Some justify them and most are always silent. In essence, they provide tacit approval and permission for the PNC’s strategy which has been in play since the 1960s and was witnessed as recently as post-elections in 2015 when “coolie” taunts and threats were hurled openly from the victorious African Guyanese.
The rule of law in the US and other developed countries has no colour, creed, gender or party affiliation. Justice is indeed blind and this more than anything else is the foundation on which progressive societies build. There is a line in the sand and consequences for crossing the line.
Without a standard to which every citizen adheres and which every citizen respects, whole societies become overrun with indiscipline and lawlessness. That is, they become like Guyana.
No government since our independence has even tried to create a disciplined and lawful society because they have all gleefully taken advantage of our love for lawlessness and, since taking Office, President David Granger has been the standard bearer for such actions. He takes unilateral decisions that flout all democratic principles of consultation, transparency and accountability.
His latest unprincipled act was his elevation of Justice Roxanne George to the position of senior counsel when all legal conventions debar giving silk to a sitting judge. How many think that Justice George could have set a sterling example and shown herself as someone who loves and respects the law by refusing the appointment?
The new Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence perhaps answers that question when she stated, in her reply to queries about her qualifications – or lack of – for the position, that: “I believe that His Excellency in his wisdom knows best.”
It is this surrendering of individual and independent thinking to an authority figure that breeds authoritarianism. Lawrence’s statement is frightening and comes as Granger rejects the nominees for the GECOM chairmanship in what appears to be an attempt to rewrite the rules in his favour.
If allowed to select his own candidate for this crucial position, he will set the stage for Guyana’s future and there will be dire consequences.
