Dear Editor,
Our young people today in Guyana are rapidly sliding down a hill into immorality and a life of crime. As I watched the news and read the papers I note with a great deal of interest that most of our young people are involved in some very serious gun crimes. Most of these young people are Afro-Guyanese; most are from broken homes and single parent backgrounds.
These young people are trying to get-rich-quick by robbing innocent citizens daily and the drug trade is growing like a tree perpetually among the young and old. Even old ladies in their 70’s and 80’s are pushing drugs, thus drugs destroy the youths in our communities and that motivates them to commit crimes to get money to fuel their drug cravings. We have bicycle and motorbike snatchers in the city of Georgetown; pickpockets, choke and rob and firearm bandits all over in Guyana as well.
The robbery of the Cambio dealer in Berbice of over million gives us much to think of, considering a former Police Officer was involved, according to the news. These big guns they were carrying were AK-47’s. This gives us much to desire pertaining to where and how they acquired these weapons and if they are not caught they will create a wild rampage of more crimes in this country. Most Police Officers do not carry weapons and those at the stations are unable to deal with these hard-core criminals who carry weapons. I am yet to hear the voice of the Public Security Minister, our President and all our foreign embassies, on how to tackle this crime situation. It is my firm opinion that these criminals have many masterminds or ‘’intellectual authors’’ planning these crimes and more is yet to come if this AK-47 gang is not dealt with expeditiously.
Getting rich quick has been a way of life for many young people, both males and females who have embraced a life of crime in Guyana. The crime is here to stay because this Government has much too lenient laws for these criminals who killed innocent citizens. These criminals must be given the death sentence. If this APNU/AFC Government enforces tougher laws the crime will be eradicated. We must remember Mr Desmond Hoyte when he said ‘’To Hang Them High’’ if we don’t get rid of criminals they will get rid of us as a nation. They might even take over this nation by a military invasion judging from the military guns they are using to rob and kill people.
Crime is also a moral problem. It stems from poor family values. If our young people have parental guidance and a good home and education they will not turn to drugs and crime. We need to build schools and churches in our prison compounds to educate these prisoners; even get teachers to teach them CXC so they can have a better future. We need a prison reform programme and better living conditions for prisoners.
Drugs and crime have now become a global phenomenon, not only in Guyana but all over the world and we must not be fooled to think that in America there is no crime. We must act now as a nation to get rid of crime or all our business people will leave Guyana very soon; many have left already. We must work hard to get what we want not by pushing drugs. We must have more programmes for our youths, because today’s youths will be tomorrow’s leaders.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
