UNDOUBTEDLY one of the most pressing national needs in Guyana is the curtailment and even eradication of criminality in the country, because this scourge has led to a deterrent to many good things happening in Guyana – not least the return of overseas-based Guyanese and a boom in the tourism sector.The crime wave has continued unabated, even as the new President was being sworn in to office.

On May 19 this newspaper reported that overseas-based Ramesh Puran, who succumbed to gunshot injuries he sustained when four masked and armed bandits invaded the Belvedere, Corentyne home at which he was a guest on May 14, died from shock and haemorrhage, according to a post-mortem conducted on his body by Dr Vivikanand Brijmohan at the Port Mourant Hospital.

Eight pellets have been extracted from his body, and investigators say a pistol was used during the attack. Puran, resident in the United States of America, arrived in his homeland on May 8, and was expected to return to the USA on May 22; but on May 14, at 21:15 hrs, his cousin Devika Ramotar was in the kitchen, housed in the lower flat of the two-storey building, when four masked men invaded the premises through an open door.

One of the men was armed with a cutlass, while each of the other accomplices had a handgun.
Ramotar was forcefully taken to the upper flat, where Pooran was relaxing. There the cutlass wielding bandit inflicted a chop to the left side of the visitor’s neck and another on his shoulder, as demands were made for jewels.

Ten gold finger rings were removed from Puran’s fingers as screams for help emanated from Ramotar. The attackers then inflicted two chops to her head before firing a warning shot to dissuade persons from attempting to come to her rescue.

This is a recurring tragedy, and many Guyanese domiciled in other countries, who long to come home, either to remain permanently, or for visits, are extremely fearful of becoming victims of the bandit fraternity, who commit their thieving and murderous acts with impunity, leaving much loss and grief in the wake of their atrocities.

Many times when apprehended after much effort by the police, sometimes at great risk to their own lives, incautious magistrates and judges send them back on the streets on bail, and more often than not statistics have proven that they continue their predatory actions.

While high crime is a long-entrenched scourge in the nation’s psyche, there has of recent times been an upsurge in armed robberies, often leading to the ultimate tragedy, where lives are lost. The perpetrators are often very young men, many in their teens.

Eradicating this tendency of the youths to turn to criminal activities in get-rich-quick attempts would need a holistic approach by all stakeholders in Government, communities and families because, apart from their victims, their own lives are also at risk and many times become forfeited when caught by law-enforcement officers.

Most Guyanese, regardless of their religious orientation and choices, are God-fearing people, and there is need for the youths to heed to the adjuration in Proverbs 1: 10-19, which advises: “My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, ‘come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us wantonly ambush the innocent; let us swallow them alive and whole; we shall find all kinds of costly things; we will fill our houses with booty. Throw in your lot among us – we will share one purse.’

“My child, do not walk in their way, keep your foot from their paths; for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood. For in vain is the net baited, while the bird is looking on; yet they lie in wait – to kill themselves; and set an ambush for their own lives! Such is the end of all those who are greedy for gain; it takes away the lives of its possessors.”

Guyana’s landscape is littered with the corpses of those who followed the way of the Godless and lawless, but it is also engulfed in the grief and loss of the victims.