Dear Editor,
Crime is a permanent social phenomenon that has always plagued societies throughout history; and it always will. This is simply because there are lazy persons who do not want to smell the sweat of their bodies. They refuse to earn a living by hard work. Instead, they prefer to engage in crime, and attack good, hardworking people like depraved, desperate beasts.
These vicious criminals are parasites in human form. They bully, brutalize, and even murder decent people to rob them of monies they earned by the sweat of their brows.
That is why I give my highest compliments to the Police officers who intercepted a gang of armed and dangerous men at the Georgetown seawall on March 15. I salute the officers for making the correct decision to use deadly force to blow away the members of this criminal gang, who seemed hell bent on spreading terror and pain while destroying anything or anyone standing in their way.
When the Police came under fire from the gang, they were quite right to respond with heavier firepower, to protect their own lives and do their duty to safeguard the public.
Members of the public need to understand what happens when the Police engage suspects. These are highly volatile encounters, and sometimes the Police have to take proactive, forceful action to defuse the situation. When Police officers come under gunfire, they will retaliate as they are trained to do, which means that they have to do whatever it takes to protect themselves and to remove the threat quickly and permanently. The Police are trained to follow ‘firing orders’ that give them steps to follow in deadly encounters with criminals; or they will be dead, and innocent civilians will be dead.
However, we have to expect that there will always be some Police officers who use excessive force against suspects, causing injuries and sometimes even resulting in deaths. Right here in Guyana, there were highly publicized cases of abuse by the Police.
I have heard about grieving relatives and friends of the men Police shot at the seawall bawling that these were innocent men caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. It makes no sense to me. What were they doing there? What would innocent persons be doing in the company of armed men with criminal records? They had to have been there for a purpose; what was this purpose?
Criminals must know that one day they will be caught. Relatives must know that criminal loved ones will be caught. They ought to make the responsible choice and turn in loved ones who are criminals. After the Lusignan Prison break, the father of one escapee took his son back to the Police. That was a wise and noble decision; it was the best thing the father could have done to try to bring his son’s life back on track. It might well have saved him from ending up dead, like the gunmen at the seawall.
Police officers have the right to use deadly force when they come under attack from criminals. They cannot be expected to conduct on-the-spot interrogations to find out who is in the right place and who is not. The wisest and safest choice for the Police is to stop the threat completely; it is better to be safe than sorry. The relatives and friends of criminals have to accept that those who live by the sword will die by the sword.
Sincerely,
Roshan Khan Snr
