– Calls for more market security

GEORGETOWN Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has called for the City Constabulary Department to get its act together and for more security to be placed inside of the municipal markets so that shoppers can feel some amount of safety.

Following the daring robbery committed on L. Seepersaud Maraj and Sons jewellery store earlier this month, Chase-Green said she paid a visit to the market and spent approximately one hour there without seeing a single constabulary officer.

She said she spent quite some time talking with the ‘Seepersaud brothers’ and walking around the market and couldn’t see any officer patrolling the market. Until she was about to leave, she saw one officer about to go to lunch.
Following such a huge robbery in the Stabroek Market, Chase-Green said she would have thought that the Constabulary would have dispatched more security there so that shoppers can feel a bit safer.

The mayor made the call for more security to be provided when city councillors met for their statutory meeting on Monday. Chief Constable Andrew Foo was not present at the meeting.

Chase-Green had a few days earlier criticised statements made by Foo that there has been a spike in robberies in the Georgetown, particularly in the business areas. She had subsequently called for him to put in place a plan to deal with the crime increase.
“I’m tired of complaints of the manner in which members of the Constabulary approach people. And when people say they will complain, the officers often respond ‘Me ain’t got time with the Mayor and the Town Clerk; they don’t run me show.’ I don’t know they got a show. It must be a comedy show. They need to be more professional, from top to bottom,” Chase-Green reported to councillors.

She appealed to the Constabulary Department not to unnecessarily harass vendors on the streets.

Councillor Welton Clarke told Chase-Green frankly that she was responsible for some of the departmental dysfunctions. “The Mayor and Town Clerk are very firm on what needs to be done but fall short in the actual execution,” the councillor said.

Clarke recalled that he had often brought up the matter of the constabulary officers regularity and punctuality at work. “Most departments are delinquent and there is lack of penalty to bring those people in line. I don’t think the department heads are being held responsible,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chase-Green said to date, she is awaiting a report from Foo on the Seepersaud robbery.

“I have not seen the report from the Chief Constable as yet and until that is submitted to me, only then I can say what the regrettable issues were,” she said, adding, “On face value it’s regrettable that it did occur. And I need to see the report. I can only assume in my mind what I heard but that is my own personal opinion.”

Following the incident, police from the Major Crimes Unit probing the robbery visited the Section 4 Stall, 42-43 in the Stabroek Market.

The owners of the store had expressed disappointment at the manner in which the matter was handled by the Mayor and City Council (M&CC).

“We have spoken directly to two city Constables who claimed that checks were done earlier in the market but nothing was discovered. As stall owners operating under market rules, we have no choice but to depend on the City Constabulary for security whenever the market is closed,” the owners of the jewellery store had said.

They have been vending in the market in excess of 80 years.