The Private Sector Commission (PSC) is urging that steps be taken to adequately equip local law enforcement agencies and personnel to better police the country’s borders in order to arrest gun-smuggling from neighbouring countries.
Chairman of the Commission, Eddie Boyer
According to Chairman of the Commission, Eddie Boyer, this will help in curbing the violent gun related crimes that has been occurring. At a press conference on Friday, Boyer expressed that there is a concern, felt by every citizen in the country, over the inability of the State to generally protect them from widespread gun inspired crime threatening their wellbeing and safety.
To this end, the PSC chairman is calling on President David Granger, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, to publicly order Police to bring some order and control as it relates to criminal gangs and individuals terrorising the Guyanese community.
“While we commend the Minister and the Commissioner of Police for the recent reduction in serious crime, our country, nevertheless, remains unprotected from guns flowing across our borders into the hands of violent criminals virtually without restraint; our country remains with a Police Force which is inadequately staffed, insufficiently trained and underequipped to meet the challenge,” he asserted.
Boyer continued that Guyanese are traumatised by fear, almost every day, of having a gun pointed at them with criminal intent. He noted too that businesses, banks and even the tourism industry are under threat: “This is not the good life. It is time that our President intervene… We believe that each and every one of our ordinary citizens feel threatened, regardless of where they happen to be, whether in the street, their workplace or in their homes, are under threat each day from violent gun related crime.”
Furthermore, he disclosed that on October 12, the Commission, through its Sub-Committee on Security, met with Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan to express concern. During that meeting, Boyer said the Minister admitted that while there has been an overall 16 per cent reduction in serious crimes this year compared to last year, criminal access to guns coming into Guyana, mainly from Brazil, is an increasing threat and remains a challenge because of the extent of the country’s borders.
These concerns of PSC and this admission by the Public Security Minister come in light of recent discoveries of illegal weapons, ammunition and ammunition components across the country.
In fact, only on Thursday the Police discovered over 200 pieces of ammunition hidden in a paint can left in an abandoned car.
Meanwhile, the day before police in ‘E’ Division (Linden/Kwakwani) discovered an AK-47 Rifle, two magazines and 15 rounds of matching ammunition, 15 .38 live rounds, 39 .9mm live rounds and 21 .223 live rounds, along with a magazine.
On the other hand, these concerns of gun-related crimes come on the heels of acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine on Saturday last disclosing that on the contrary serious crimes involving the use of firearms have declined this year when compared to the past two years.
However, he was referring to a specific period from September 1 to October 20, during which in 2014, ‘A’ Division (Georgetown) had 80 reports of gun-related crimes; ‘C’ Division (East Coast Demerara) 18 reports, and ‘D’ Division (West Demerara/East Bank Essequibo) six reports were made during that period.
Then in 2015, during the same period, ‘A’ Division recorded 92 reports; ‘C’ Division 18 and ‘D’ Division eight. During that two-month period in 2016, 74 reports were made in ‘A’ Division; 16 in ‘C’ Division and 22 in ‘D’ Division.
Meanwhile, the overall figures for those years as it relates to reports involving robberies with the use of firearms amounted to 246 in ‘A’ Division; 52 overall in ‘C’ Division and ‘D’ Division 36.
Additionally, during the period October 1 to 20, in 2014, ‘A’ Division had 34 reports of robberies where firearms were used; ‘C’ Division had six such reports, and ‘D’ Division had four.
This same period in 2015, recorded 38 gun-related reports in ‘A’ Division; seven in ‘C’ Division and four in ‘D’ Division. For this year ‘A’ Division had 20 such reports; ‘C’ Division seven and ‘D’ Division eight.
Overall, for those three years, robberies involving the use of firearms for that period in October comparatively, ‘A’ Division had 92 reports, ‘C’ Division 16 and ‘D’ Division 20 reports.
