Dear Editor,
This crime situation is getting to me, only to be compounded more by the article in your newspaper dated 14/12/2016 ‘Crime spirals out of control; Police claims 16% reduction’. I am beginning to question the data and sanity of the Guyana Police Force.
Sixteen per cent reduction in armed robberies? Where did this data come from? Here is a little check and balance I did after reading this outrageous article. I hit Kaieteur News’ archives (when I want to read about crime I read that newspaper, they don’t miss any) and selected one week at random in 2015 and choose the corresponding week in 2016, now I know this is a small sample from which to make any generalisation, but I am sure if we all take a week in 2015 and compare it to 2016 we will find the same trend.
My weeks in history were October 25 – 31, 2015 and October 25 – 31, 2016. For the week in October 2015, the newspaper reported TWO cases of robbery, I am not even sure if the articles can even be placed in this category, the headlines read ‘Businesswoman fights off gunmen to save car’ and ‘Party going passengers hijack taxi driver’. For the corresponding week in 2016, the following were the headlines: ‘Bandits abandon Alness home invasion after hearing siren’, ‘Lone gunman robs and shoots businessman’, ‘Woman robbed at gunpoint outside La Penitence market’ and ‘Gunmen strike at Mahaica gas station’.
There were FOUR incidents of robbery under arms reported, double that amount for the corresponding week in 2015!
The above finding is exactly why I am questioning the figures that the GPF is presenting. I read a letter in Stabroek News recently in which the writer (Mr GHK Lall) was questioning numbers, I saw great sense in his letter and I now stand in solidarity with him in also questioning the numbers; some things definitely do not add up!
I have heard cries of people (especially from supporters of the PPP) for the President and Minister of National Security to make a serious attempt to tackle the situation, I am not in defence of anyone but I think if the Guyana Police Force does get their data correct and pronounce that there is indeed an increase in armed robberies, the President and Minister will be in denial, through no fault of theirs.
W Moore
