IT IS true that since May 2015, controversial shooting deaths involving the Guyana Police Force had virtually ceased. Properly described as extra judicial killings, these are deaths of reported suspects who are executed in circumstances that are outside of what are known as Standard Operating Procedures.

This means that such acts are not only illegal, but are unsanctioned according to the Rules of Engagement and unprofessional, and are also known to include rogue elements of the police force that are known to have been hired for “hit jobs” and other serious illegalities.
Broadly speaking, this is a culture that has become a norm in many regions of the world, in countries where the system of governance has become degraded. This inevitably leads to a distortion of public morality, with state-sanctioned criminalities of every kind undermining the functioning of key state institutions, with the principal democratic tenet of the Rule of Law becoming desecrated in the process.

The above has been no stranger to Guyana’s social dynamics over the past two decades. In fact, such a former daily, expected police practice accounted for the lives of dozens of particularly young Afro-Guyanese, in circumstances that have been as questionable as the recent one in which three alleged suspected robbers were shot dead on the Georgetown seawall.

The incidents of the Mandela Avenue shooting deaths of three young men, and those of the South Road killings of an equal number are recalled.
It is not that we wish to highlight our law enforcement agency in such a negative and questionable light, although we have done opinion pieces calling into question police behaviour, and how it impacts on public perception of, and confidence in, this key agency on which the nation depend for protection.

But we must point out that a reported operation such as what took place on the seawall, and the several questions arising out of same, are bound to evoke memories of a bygone era. Memories cannot be convenient on the part of some, or forgetful, as to the destructive effects such actions would have exacted on community relations with the Guyana Police Force.

The results are only too fresh in our minds: hatred for police personnel; and a refusal to report criminal acts and cooperate with criminal investigations that led to so many unsolved crimes. No society can afford such a schism, as it can only engender anarchy, and great fear among its citizens. Guyana must not return to such a dark era.
It explains why, through numerous programmes and initiatives employed for a better functioning and professional police force, by the coalition government that community relations with the police have been greatly improved. This has led to the solving of many cold cases, and above all, the quick solving of current acts of serious crime and apprehension of suspects.

This is the kind of positive public engagement that fosters a safer society, especially one that is predicated on law and order, and in which the Rule of Law is respected. Society will, and should always raise questions when due process is seen to be in question in any aspect of police operations.

We are not here making any pre-judgment on the circumstances of the seawall incident, except to say that the decision of the government to swiftly order an inquest is indeed welcomed. It is in the wider public interest that such a procedure be invoked, with all those who may have information, make it their civic duty to testify.
Only the facts and the truth must explain what occurred.