Mr. WILFRED Stewart was shot dead by armed bandits who had gone to Sterling Products to get the contents of the safe. They went there to empty the safe of that company and the one whom they think posed the threat between them achieving that goal was the security guard so at point blank range they snuffed out his life. This was a properly planned attack and would have been another equally successful heist by criminals who are well versed in the business of armed robbery. The only problem this time is that the commotion created by the alarm system threw them off balance. That incident is just another one of those armed robbery cases that is characteristic of Region 4. We wake up to another one of those days with murder mayhem marring the headlines and when will it all end? Region 4, Georgetown in particular, is the thieving and murder capital of the Caribbean, if not the world. It is a sad, sick, pathetic, situation in Guyana today.

Now, this situation will not change seeing the criminals are taking good advantage of the prevailing circumstances, that is, the instability formulated by a sympathetic Opposition. Armed robbers and cold blooded murderers are one of the fancied instruments of destabilisation used by the opposition. And they do this in either of two ways, remain silent, or at the least make asinine excuses for this sort of barbarity. Our country is in the throes of dark and gloomy days, as the murderous horde go on a rampage.

I have come to the conclusion that the only solution to this problem is for the formulation of and careful sleuth-like execution of a crime fighting strategy. Here are some of the areas we can explore:
1. There must be, I repeat must be mandatory stop and search programme put in place. This is a sure way of netting criminals of the sort that abound in Guyana today. There would be great success when this is done seeing the preferred mode of robbery is CG motor cycles and cars. As we speak, criminals have been nabbed by an alert police patrol on the Corentyne, who opted for the proven method of “stop and search.” Three bandits and their firearms are now out of commission. This means that law enforcement officers have to get up off their haunches and do more patrols.
2. Secondly, police officers must make raids of known criminals and their hideouts; go search for them and root them out. They are not going to come to you so go to them and find them! This means that you have to go there well prepared for the inevitable.
3. Act on every phone call, follow every lead you might be on to a big find of arms and ammunition as well as the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. Like the situation on the Corentyne you may well have thwarted another murderous robbery bid.
4. In the Sterling Products murder and attempted robbery matter we are told that two men are in custody with lawmen seeking a third man, possibly the mastermind. This tells me that those in custody should have been fingerprinted and their hands swabbed and tested for gunpowder residue. The reason for me saying this is that the police have to go about this crime fighting business in a modern and professional manner, not the age old Burnhamite tactic of forcing a confession statement out of them. The age of brute force where you beat a confession out of a criminal and taking that to court will not work. We have seen countless cases of this where known criminals simply cough up a confession statement, then hire one of these crime loving politically motivated lawyers such as Nigel Hughes and the case goes down the chute. in this case getting irrefutable evidence will do it in a court of law.
5 This brings us to the fifth and most crucial point, the matter of trying the matter in court. In the first place, sentencing for gun related crimes is a big joke. In the present dispensation sentencing for the possession of a firearm and carrying out a crime with it is simply innocuous. Sentencing a criminal for two, sometimes three years for the possession of weapon of mass destruction is simply asking for trouble. It is simply a “slap on the wrist” and a tacit carry on smartly boy. My take on this is sentencing for arms possession should carry a minimum of 10 years incarceration and in the event the firearm is not found or there is a refusal to divulge information of it another 10 years should be added to it. If this route is taken many a criminal would volunteer valuable information to secure a lesser sentence. Believe it or not the criminal wants to get out there to continue his crime and one sure way in doing this is keeping his firearm intact. By getting the firearm out of circulation would do the trick, he is handicapped without the firearm hence, will pose no threat to society.
If you take the recent attack at Sterling Products you get the real picture. Three gunmen were present at the scene they shot the security guard and took away his gun, this means that there are now four guns out there waiting to carry out another murderous attack. The point I am making is you recover the firearms and put the perpetrators away which means that we can go to our workplaces as well as sleep at ease. In related news, one or all of the suspects in this matter are past offenders of similar crimes who have just been released from prison. This is the true picture of the situation we are faced with.
5. There should be major overhauls in the justice system as well when it comes to gun crimes. The present scenario makes pathetic reading when you see a man going to jail for  5 hard years for a “spliff” or what we would say “a joint of marijuana” than a criminal trafficking in over 100 lbs of cocaine going scotch free. And I say this not because of the Alex Moore matter in letting the criminal drug trafficker off but against the backdrop of countless other cases. When justice can be so draconian in what I call petty matters It shows you how much of an incentive these sentences are for those bent on real hardcore matters as in gun crimes. The point I am making is that the structure of the present justice system condones crime by deliberately focusing on the non -essentials when the real issues are overlooked.
Finally, a network must be set up where these criminals are concern, business places and other commercial outlets should pass on information to the police of commercial activities such as purchases made by “known characters” and their associates. I make this statement on the backdrop of what dominates the Guyana crime scene. These criminals do their dastardly deeds then buy expensive vehicles, the preferred type being cars. Now, these are guys who never worked or at least have any intentions to work but to engage in, a term loosely used in Guyana today, “business.” That kind of business is killing people and something drastic has to be done to rid society of them. Businesses do pass on information to the relevant authorities so that we can bring a halt to these crimes.
Again I make mention of the Sterling Products case of a motor car used as a getaway vehicle. Now i guarantee you that car is owned by one of the criminals. Where did he “work” to acquire such luxury? The point I am making is criminals should always be under the radar. Surveillance is important in getting these guys in the place where they belong.
Guyana must move forward and we can do this minus the crime.

NEIL ADAMS