ARMED CRIMINALS are becoming more daring in their quest to rob and, if necessary, kill whoever happens to be targeted. Latest example was the brazen execution attempt early Friday morning on a 26-year-old businesswoman of Kitty, Malika Susan Da Silva, who had to undergo emergency surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Illegal firearms are mushrooming too often in different parts of the country and the Ministry of Home Affairs and security forces must urgently consider new, even if costly, initiatives to arrest the gun-related epidemic.
One such consideration could well be enforcement of a series of phased restricted states of emergency to carry out round-the-clock searches for illegal arms and ammunition.
The zonal carpet-like hunt for arms and ammunition should be carefully planned and executed over a phased period with the utmost care being taken by the security forces against potential “information leaks” within the security forces themselves.
The special initiative to capture illegal arms and their owners may prove somewhat inconvenient at times for the public, given the chosen hours, by day and night, that could also involve road blocks in some areas. But citizens would prefer to suffer some inconveniences for their own safety than to live in constant fear of rampaging armed criminals at large.
In our yesterday’s edition, we published a news article in which Crime Chief Leslie James was emphatic in his contention that the changing tactics of the criminals require new crime-fighting strategies. And while the security forces are addressing new policies and tactics, the business community must do likewise in their own interest and also as partners against criminality.
Perhaps there should be a meeting of minds between the Guyana Police Force and the business community—in co-operation with the Ministry of Home Affairs—to assess the prevailing crime situation and consider new initiatives to address specific problems, with high priority given to capturing the illegal guns and weapons being used by armed robbers and murderers.
While we have noted the Crime Chief’s response to stated concerns for better use of the Canine and Mounted Branches of the GPF, the reality is that their frequent absence seems more the practice than the rule.
The average Guyanese, irrespective of social class and political persuasion, knows only too well that there are too many people with too many illegal guns and weapons moving about, by day and night, and remain scornful of the rule of law. Time is overdue to apprehend them and capture the guns and weapons being callously used to rob and kill.
Other jurisdictions in the Caribbean have occasionally found it necessary to enforce limited periods of national emergency to conduct blanket searches for illegal guns and weapons. Perhaps Guyana should now include this policy in new approaches to put the criminals on the run and capture the unknown quantities of illegal guns and weapons at large.