Guyanese living in fear – former President

…‘We need to cut small criminals to get big ones’ – Ramjattan

Former President Donald Ramotar called out the Coalition Administration in a communication to the media on Friday, highlighting that Guyanese fearing for their safety continues to mount in light of the crime situation, while stakeholders are voicing concerns of the high crime rate.

Ramotar recognised that the Guyana Police Force (GPF) alone cannot alleviate the occurrence of these crimes that taking place. On this note, he referred to recent comments made by acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine on the role of the judiciary in crime fighting.

“He is only partially correct in this regard. In passing, I have noticed that he has not mentioned the consistent release of prisoners from the lockups. What the public needs to know is what kind of crime the persons being released were charged/convicted for and how many go back to crime. I have no doubt that this too contributes to crimes in the society,” he stated.

The former President went on to say that the crimes being committed now are heavily linked to the performance of the economy. He outlined that with little to no initiatives being taken to create jobs, people are losing hope while some have resorted to criminal activities.

This situation Ramotar said has not only put the safety and security of families on the line, but that too of businesses that are struggling in what seems to be a stagnant economy.

The former Head of State continued that with good Policing, if the issues raised by the acting Police Commissioner, whom he emphasised has inner knowledge of the system, are acted upon, then it will go a far way in drastically reducing the crime rate.

Exploring security measures

However, as concerns continue to mount from various sectors of society, Government has been exploring different measures to arrest the crime situation. One such will be to focus on taming small criminals.

This was disclosed by Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan on Friday when he told reporters that the big criminals usually feed on the smaller ones and so efforts need to be directed towards nipping those “petty criminals”.

“If we start cutting the base, that apex will tumble down – that’s my philosophy and so that’s the base that we want, the little fella that go in the car and snatch that and whatever,” Ramjattan remarked at a press conference hosted by the Alliance For Change (AFC) party, of which he is the leader.

According to the Security Minister, if such a strategy is adopted then it will allow the ‘Major Crime Squad’ to better identify and recognise the high-profile criminals and then focus on taking them down as well.

On the other hand, he posited that another step that needs to be taken to reduce the amount of crimes in the country, particularly robberies, is for Guyana to move from cash to plastic transactions.

He outlined that statistics have proven that countries which deal with plastic cards have experienced a 35 per cent reduction with regards to opportunity crimes. He added too that Governor of the Bank of Guyana has forwarded him a communication detailing that World Banks have indicated intentions to engage in less cash transactions.

Joining the Public Security Ministry on this topic was fellow AFC executive member and Minister of Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, who pointed out that Guyanese need to be responsible and avoid much cash transactions, particularly when it involves large sums.

“We have to understand that in today’s world, we have to start moving away from the heavy emphasis we have with using cash and carrying large amounts of cash…We are failing to protect ourselves, we are not thinking.

There are other ways of doing financial transactions and so we really need to move away from carrying large amounts of cash,” she asserted.

Also the Public Security Minister mentioned a series of other measures that will be undertaken by his administration to curb the crime situation, including the introduction of bicycle brigades – an initiative that Guyana and other Caribbean countries will benefit from training provided by the United States. This will see specially trained law enforcement officers patrolling busy streets in the city, as well as communities to prevent crimes. However, these efforts are being embarked upon against the backdrop of Government and the GPF maintaining that crime is not on the rise as is the public perception.