ANTHONY Cort did not deserve to die.

Still at the tender age of 10 years, this child of the nation expected the society to protect him, offer him the kind of life every child deserves, of innocence, playfulness and safety, and allow him to grow up into adulthood. Cort and his mom were spending their day like so many Guyanese, visiting their neighbour in their community at Sophia, when heavily armed, inhumane criminals invaded the house, robbed the residents, and shot dead young Cort.

Pictures of this happy-looking innocent boy floated around the media and reached the world community online, with Guyanese everywhere feeling a sense of loss, shock, and helplessness against the cruel audacity of snarling criminals armed with deadly weapons invading homes with brazen disregard in bright daylight.

President Ali and senior government leaders visited the shattered family, and a picture of the President comforting the grieving mother of Cort stirred the hearts of Guyanese everywhere. With this gesture of compassionate understanding and readiness to reach out a hand of support, encouragement and sympathy, President Ali sent a strong message to the nation that government cares for every person, and that nobody would ever have to suffer alone when trying times test the faith and resilience of the Guyanese soul.

And this criminal act of such shockingly inhumane cruelty does test the Guyanese soul. As a nation, this country cannot afford to sit back and allow this kind of behaviour to stain the good name of this land and to cause angst, dread, and sadness among citizens across the country, and in the diaspora. An urgent, emergency solution is desperately needed to curb this sort of wickedness that lurks in the dark shadows of this land.

Nobody in any reasonable state of mind would deliberately shoot a young child with such deadly aim that one bullet killed. These are soul-less criminals with no regard for human life, and therefore should not be allowed to roam freely in the society.

The Guyana Police Force has had challenging times over the years, and news this week of body cameras on ranks out in the public would be welcome, and hopefully would help to repair the tainted image of the force, that is so prone to accusations of bribery, corruption, and inefficiency, even among traffic cops who work the streets.
Yet, the force has some outstanding leaders, one of whom is Assistant Commissioner Clifton Hicken.

It is timely and a tribute to Anthony Cort for government to hold an emergency confab with progressive, proven leaders of the force like Hicken, to implement a strategy and workable plan to clean up the streets of Georgetown of street crimes, petty criminals, illegal guns and other weapons, and to crush the inner-city illegal drug operations, with a target especially to rid Guyana of career criminals.

This is not a new problem, in fact, it dates back to the 1980s when kick-down-the-door bandits attacked Guyanese in their homes. That era spawned a criminal underground from which this country never recovered; so much so that today citizens are fearful of venturing into certain sections of the city, including the inner streets of Werk-en-Rust, Lodge, Albouystown, West Ruimveldt and Sophia.

At Kaneville aback of Grove on the East Bank of Demerara, a den of thieves resides, and residents along the high-density population stretch from Diamond to Craig fear the Kaneville area from where criminals would all too often raid houses or attack persons on the streets. In New Amsterdam, as well, brazen bandits are prone to attack a resident walking a street too late in the day, and even downtown at the market and Pitt Street, anybody is liable to suffer from armed pickpocketers and menacing robbers.

This sad experience of the nation, to watch its young son, Cort, killed with a bandit’s bullet when he was hanging out having fun at his neighbour’s house in his home community, is an urgent wake-up call to this country.

Clearly, this country, especially around the inner-city, shadowy communities of Georgetown, harbours exceedingly damaged souls, some generational criminals who took up the habit from a wayward parent, some addicted to drugs and dangerous to society, and some so poor and desperate that they would do anything to make a living. These are people who fell through the cracks, with some even believing that it is their right to rob and pillage ordinary Guyanese, a kind of ‘have-nots’ taking from the ‘haves’ by force and threats.

Whatever the causes of this terrible situation of petty street crimes impacting how this country lives, works and builds, it is absolutely necessary for government to call upon the Police Force to implement an emergency campaign to root out inner-city criminals, to place them in rehabilitation facilities until they are fit to re-enter society as stable individuals, and to clean up known areas of illegal drugs, mental health sufferers such as addicts, and people who just plainly do not want to be good citizens.

Guyana is becoming a world-class society, and the nation cannot tolerate this situation, for these criminals to hold the country hostage with their brazen cruelty. They take a psychological toll on the national mindset, when Guyanese see one of their innocent young children gunned down at the hands of marauding criminals brandishing weapons of immense deadliness.

Guyana is a better society than this, and it is necessary for government and the force to come up with an urgent emergency solution to right the wrong that caused Anthony Cort to lose his life in such a brutal, inhumane, uncivilised way. Like Cort, Guyanese deserve better than this, and the nation can do better. It is time to eradicate this curse upon the nation that has lurked in the shadows since the 1980s.