SPEAKER of the House and legal mind par excellence, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, once queried, in a feature he wrote, the yardstick used by judges and magistrates in legal determinations in court as regards sentencing, the granting of bail, and  placing someone on remand.
It seems a great travesty of justice when violent criminals who commit armed robberies, rapists and child abusers are granted bail, while some persons who commit minor offences are placed on remand.
It is only a matter of time before an armed robber kills someone – and a young businessman on the East Coast of Demerara is the recent victim, among countless others, whose life was sacrificed because Guyana’s flawed justice system allows killers to walk the streets, free to perpetrate their heinous crimes unabated, despite the fact that most are known repeat offenders, many times identified by victims and accused of serious and very violent gun-related crimes.
Murder accused Edward Skeete had been jointly charged, in July 2008, along with one Dexter Chase, of robbing George Ramsarran in his business premises in Georgetown of local and US currency and jewelry.  They had been armed and subsequently had a shoot-out with police.  Chase was killed during that exchange of gunfire and a frightened and cornered Skeete surrendered to the police.
Let loose once more on the streets to continue his depredations, he was charged on 3rd March this year for robbing Ronald Jhaman, a businessman of Vryheid’s Lust, an offence for which he was placed on $60,000 bail.  Now this is a man with a record, who has once more gone into his preferred profession of robbing persons, with violence if that becomes necessary; yet he was once more let loose to swathe a path of criminality on a series of hapless victims.
Today, because of the decision to let him loose, a young son, father, husband – and a model citizen is lying dead.  Those who decided to let him back into mainstream society must be deemed equally culpable as the alleged killer for the death of 40-year-old Bedi Ramjewan.
Almost eerily similar are the track records of the robbers of the Lahago supermarket, who are repeat offenders of violent crimes.
Yesterday Radhika Thakoor, the mother of Sheema Mangar, whose daughter was brutally killed by the thief of her cellphone, visited Chronicle to relate her story of agony – a story that is replicated with so many variations and facets in dozens of homes and families of Guyana;  and a story that sends a chilling picture of fear in the citizens of the land, because no one, regardless of their status, can feel safe from society’s predators, even in the sanctuary of their homes.
A GPL employee has been charged with robbery, taxi drivers are accused of attempted kidnapping and rape, of robberies – and maybe worse.  A few persons got together and killed a devoted family man for his car.
Yet there are elements of society at leadership level who encourage this behaviour because it satisfies their purpose and suits their agendas: and one cannot help but think, given the rhetoric and actions of the past, that the guns are being provided to criminals to ramp up the crime wave, with the ultimate objective to destabilize the country, because guns are expensive acquisitions and not easily accessible to the average Joe or Jenny, yet they seem to  proliferate  in Guyana.
One cannot help but recall the many guns, still unaccounted for, that went missing from security stores – especially during a certain period in this country’s history, and one wonders whether there is complicity with criminals, and if so, at what levels.  Certainly, it boggles the mind why criminals are continually let loose by the justice system to run amok and wantonly rob and slay law-abiding citizens from one end of the country to another.
Given Guyana’s history, this escalating crime wave, draws a chilling picture, and could very well serve as a  warning of things to come.