THERE is very little that the Guyana Police Force — or anyone, for that matter — can do when someone who feels violated, or is offended by something that someone has said or done, chooses in a split second to retaliate in a manner that causes the death of another person.

Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud made the foregoing observation, and said he believes that society needs to come on board to play its part and provide training on interpersonal violence, non-violent communication, and interpersonal skills.

With regard to the 98 persons whose lives have been taken by another/others thus far for 2015 — which reflects an increase in murders over the corresponding period last year — Persaud admitted that the GPF is indeed upset and concerned at the increase, given all the work that has been done to address the issue of crime and security in the country.

Persaud said one of the things the police have found is that almost half of the murders committed have resulted from impulsive actions, wherein persons — without having second thoughts — responded to comments or actions that offended them; and by the time they reconsider the impulsive reactions taken, they would have already caused the death of someone else.

In cases such as those, he said, the hands of the police are tied, since those types of incidents usually happen in homes, away from the eyes of policemen and women, who are informed of the development only after the station would have received a call or something to that effect.

At the moment, the GPF has been preaching tolerance, non-violent communication, interpersonal skills, and peaceful forms of communication and expansive tolerance to young people through the many youth groups which the GPF finances. The police have also made these subjects part of their annual camps, which are held at Timehri and on the East Coast of Demerara respectively.

Commissioner Persaud has pointed out that it is not the police alone who can bring the problems of violence and intolerance under control; other groups and organisations need to advocate and teach in this regard. He said the school system ought to teach the foregoing as a normal part of the curriculum as well.

The principal focus and occupation of the GPF is security, but the GPF has, of recent, been engaging in a lot of community-related activities and engagements with young people, such as finding jobs for them, and having them enrolled in several programmes with assistance from the business community and other corporate entities.
The Force had stated in the past that it has come to realise that the work of policemen and women would be made a bit easier if children were to engage in such activities, since the activities position children to direct their attention away from crime and other anti-social activities, which cause them to end up on the wrong side of the law.

The Police Commissioner also said that the GPF has a legal obligation to detect and prevent crime, but the social responsibility of the Force is also to ensure that it gets involved in activities which would reduce the incidence of crime within the society.

By Leroy Smith