Home Top Stories Rampaging mobs invade Mon Repos Market beating & robbing vendors, burning vehicles,...
…as Bacchus murder protest turns violent
By Jemima Holmes
What was intended to be a call for justice for slain Quindon Bacchus at Golden Grove on Tuesday escalated into terror along the East Coast Demerara (ECD) corridor thus leading to several vendors at the Mon Repos Market being robbed while their stalls were vandalised and goods looted.
Armed with cutlasses, knives, iron bars, and other handy weapons, looters stormed the Mon Repos Market just after 10:00h.
Claiming that they were avenging the shooting death of Bacchus which took place on June 10, the looters proceeded to destroy goods, burn stalls and vehicles, shatter windscreens of vehicles, and even assault vendors who were forced to run into the adjoining streets in fear for their lives.
After the looters made off with the fruits, vegetables, clothing, shoes, and other articles which were being sold in the makeshift market; vendors were left counting their losses, which could be amounted to millions of dollars.
One vendor, Lakeram Lallchand, stated that about five minutes after they were warned, the looters – mainly teenagers – had already made their way to the market, some on bicycles, motorcycles, and on foot.
There, they wreaked havoc, breaking vehicle windows, crushing glass cases with food, and stomping on vegetables and fruits. The looters even went as far as to torch stalls and a bus that one vendor had recently acquired.
Lallchand, who has estimated his losses to be in the millions, recounted the harrowing tale of what occurred, that has now left his two daughters who were with him traumatised.
Barely able to get the words out, Lallchand said, “We take a lot of blows here budday. If you see me two daughters a run for they life, them a bawl for me ‘Daddy, daddy, come, don’t go’. Them man got all kind of weapon with them, and we can’t do nothing”.
“My wife deh home bawling she throat, cause she studying what happen to she two daughter, she husband and she business…it’s not easy,” the vendor continued as he was reduced to tears.
“Oil and them thing expensive, flour, everything, sugar, everything them gone with.”
Several other vendors voiced their frustration in the aftermath of the looting, disclosing to this publication that they now have no means of starting over.
“They robbed everybody that selling here, people running with coolers or scales that is $10,000, we take goods from people and we got to work and pay it back, we can’t tell them we get robbed, they ain’t want hear that,” one vendor lamented.
Another shared, “They come and they carry away everything, rice, big jars of oil, everything. The Government got to see try help we a little bit, we can’t bear this, this is too much, only yesterday we stocked we stand.”
“Today me stand and see these people come and carry all we goods. What them ain’t able carry them destroy.”
The prevailing question, however, was why Mon Repos.
“Why these people them had to come and do this, if them and the Police have a problem let them go deal with the Police, not we. We and them ain’t got no problem,” a teary-eyed businesswoman shared.
The vendors even bemoaned the lack of Police presence before, during and immediately after the violent attack.
“We call the Police station about three times, not even a Police respond to us. Til when everything done, then you see a whole fleet Police coming. What sense it make,” a clothing vendor questioned.
Her nearby colleague chipped in, saying, “When you need police, nobody wasn’t here at the moment.”
“This was very traumatising cause if you look we don’t have anything to start over. We ain’t got nothing to give here anymore. We need help,” she added.
Help was, indeed, on the way, but not before the Mon Repos residents turned the tables.
However, the peaceful protest started at about 7:30h at the Golden Grove market square which later saw residents blocking the main access roads on both sides with debris they could have put their hands on.
Chanting and singing songs filled the air, as residents demanded justice for their fellow villager Quindon Bacchus, who was shot dead by a serving member of the Guyana Police Force.
Pent up anger about Bacchus’s death soon evolved into frustration about the slothfulness of the GPF’s investigation into the matter. Adding fuel to the fire, were misleading reports by a social media news outfit that the alleged shooter, Special Branch Officer Kristoff DeNobrega, was released from close arrest.
However, the only change was that DeNobrega was placed on open arrest, but he was still confined to the Police’s Headquarters.
But the protest was not confined to Golden Grover alone. In fact, in several villages, such as Ann’s Grove, blockades were erected and combustible articles were set on fire. This action saw miles of backed-up traffic which left thousands of residents inconvenienced. Many road users were forced to abandon their travels.
Upon their return to Golden Grove, there was a standoff between the Police and the protesters during which vehicles and bridges along with other items were set afire. The irate protesters soon found other ways to express their dissatisfaction.
Fighting fire with fire
Meanwhile, residents of the community and vendors of the Mon Repos Market gathered to cry out about their situation. As Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn came and left the scene and other top-ranking officials failed to show up soon enough, the residents grew weary of waiting.
Within the blink of an eye, the very vendors who were victimised and the very stalls that they begged to save only two hours earlier were being strewn across the East Coast Public Road, in a protest of their own.
Makeshift weapons in hand, the residents successfully blocked the roads and started a fire, the first of which was doused by Pandit Haresh Tewari, who is quite active on the East Coast.
Tewari, in a message to the people stated, “The people are very agitated, you see that and rightly so. We just went through the village and they’ve lost at least $30 million and it’s not fair. People want to vent their frustration, but of course we want them to understand that you don’t fight fire with fire.”
“Hopefully we can keep it calm.”
However, Pandit Tewari’s urges fell on deaf ears as the residents continued to use old vehicles, zinc sheets and dismantled stalls to assist their manmade roadblock.
At the line top end of the Mon Repos Market Road, another set of residents were engaged in a standoff with several members of the Guyana Police Force. The officers, armed with guns and tear gas, created a human barricade, to which the residents answered with taunts.
The burning of articles continued at Mon Repos and the Guyana Fire Service was forced to return to the area to quell the blazes.
