Dear Editor,
Please oblige me a space in your newspaper to bring to the attention of the administration of the Guyana Police Force an incident that took place on May 3, 2018 at the Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH’s) Head Office (Lot 1 Brickdam).
Editor, on the mentioned day, I had a very unfortunate opportunity to witness what I deem not only cruel, but inhumane treatment administered to a citizen — a taxpayer, and moreso an elderly woman — by the sergeant who runs that location. This elderly woman, I believe, is old enough to be that sergeant’s mother.
Now, the MoPH is having two gates from the Brickdam entrance. One of them is to be used by pedestrians, and the other one is for the movement of the ministry’s vehicles. The pedestrians’ entrance is not seen by people many times, and that may be because of the way it is situated.
This elderly woman travelled from wherever in a westerly direction to the Ministry, and may have only spotted the gate used by the vehicles, and had decided to make her entry there. She was already in the compound, and just as she was about to pass the security hut, she was greeted by a very loud voice.
“Hello! Get back through that gate and use the other gate!” The loudness and force with which those words stormed through that woman’s ears that morning gave me no reason to doubt that she would have thought twice to disobey this order. She immediately carried out that demand!
You think it finished there? No. She then turned her attention to the rank who was controlling the gate (it’s an automatic gate). “What I told y’all about not paying attention to the gate, eh? Y’all don’t piss me off this morning…”
Editor, it is not really a big issue if persons use that gate, but it is on the safer side if they use the gate built for them. What I have witnessed a few times by the previous sergeant is that she used to kindly ask them to use the other gate next time, if they happened to have already made their way into the compound. That approach is one which much be commended.
Editor, we at the MoPH have never had a cause to make any informal, or even formal, complaint about any rank who had worked or currently works at the ministry, until they (the Police) replaced the previous sergeant with what we are having now. Her behaviour is a disgrace to the Police Force.
Yours truly,
Concerned employee
