Every year for the past two decades, the Police have been issuing statistics to “show” that the crime rate is falling!! Now, with all that “proof” from our fearless lawmen, is your Eyewitness soft in the head for figuring that crime should’ve disappeared completely from our fair land by now!!? Or is crime like one of those “asymptotes” he was forced (on pain of the “wild cane!!) to learn about in his dissolute youth?? You know…those graphs that approach the axis closer and closer, but never touch to show an end state!!
Anyhow, he also learnt about “lies, dames lies and statistics”! And knowing the Guyana Police Force as he does (he’s stopped counting the number of times he’s been “shaken down” as he drives sedately on the road), he’s long concluded that they’ve taken “disinformation” to a whole new level. Your Eyewitness figures that if the Venezuelans ever invaded, all we need to throw them off scent is having the Police give them directions to our strategic centres!!
As best as he can figure, the GPF gotta have a whole department of creative writers – who’re shaky on arithmetic – dedicated specifically to producing the “crime reports”. Now, take this statement from a global report from this year and contrast with what follows: “Guyana has the eighth-highest crime rate worldwide of 68.74, and a murder rate of about four times higher than that of the United States”!! Now, let’s not forget that there are almost 200 countries in the world, and for us to be number 8 on the crime hit parade, it means our Police are in a league of their own!
Let’s take the last report on crime from the GPF – as recounted by the official Govt newspaper – that crossed your Eyewitness’s feed: “In addition to the reduction of serious crimes, the force also saw a significant 31.5 per cent reduction in the number of robberies under arms, with 608 being recorded in 2021 against the 888 in 2020. A 16.6 per cent reduction was also recorded in murders, which are reflected in the 131 in 2021 against the 157 in 2020.”
But in the year 2019, praising the sterling of the Police, they reported: “There was a 349 difference in the number of serious crimes recorded in 2021 and 2020, as 1742 serious crimes were recorded from January 1, 2020 to September 6, 2020, while 1,393 were recorded in the same time period for 2021 across the 12 police divisions across Guyana.” Then, the same year, they said, “35% spike in murders recorded but serious crime down”!! See?? How can you get their story straight when they keep on changing the categories? Three-card monte?
Murders aren’t serious crimes?
…against “intimate partners”
The polls are coming fast and furious. Is it a sign of our oil wealth? Be that as it may, your Eyewitness hopes we aren’t getting “poled” – as in being “shafted”!! Anyhow, this one was on “intimate partner violence” (IPV), and they found that 62% of Guyanese believe this is a “man and wife” business! That’s the highest in the entire region! Meaning that the Police, or neighbours, or outsiders, on the whole, shouldn’t get involved!! Your Eyewitness is gobsmacked! But when you think of it…or recall our headlines for the longest while, he shouldn’t be!
And moreso since he’s been railing against this scourge forever. LAPOP suggested a rationale that we should all ponder over. To wit, that it all has to do with how we males are socialised in our country. They showed that folks who’re richer or well educated don’t beat up on their wives
As much. But they still do, don’t they?
So, what do WE do?? Intensify educating our people and making them rich
