Granger treading on dangerous ground
-in using crime situation as political football
HOME Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee yesterday expressed disappointment at People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Presidential Candidate, David Granger’s attempts to score cheap political mileage by embellishing the recent upsurge in crime and vilifying the unwavering efforts of law enforcement agencies to put it down.
The minister said that while it is true that there has been a rise in gun crimes in particular of late, whereby persons have been killed in the process, there is no earthly reason to use the situation as a barometer to measure the extent to which crime exists here.
“The Guyana Police Force and other law enforcement agencies are doing their utmost in order to bring down as far as possible the extent to which gun crimes are being committed in the country, an issue that is of much concern to all citizens, but we have to be careful not to engage in making this issue a political football,” the minister said.
He maintained that politicising the crime situation would send the wrong signal to criminals, something that Granger seems to be leading towards.
“There will always be a contest with the perception of the facts; every day people are subjected to what appears in some sections of the media, which engage in a lot of sensationalisation to sell their newspapers with respect to crime. Mr. Granger is obviously working in cahoots with those sections of the media which have a political agenda,” the minister lamented.
With regards to Granger’s claims that the business community is the hardest hit sector of all, Minister Rohee said the government has been constantly engaging the business community, particularly entities like the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce (GCC) and the Private Sector Commission (PSC), and that whatever security concerns they may have are always taken seriously.
Said the minister: “It is true that the persons who are affected are from the business community, and we are deeply concerned about this as well, but to latch on to the crime situation and make it a political football is treading on dangerous ground, and sending the wrong signal to those in society who are bent on deviant behaviour.”
Noting that in all of the recent gun crimes, persons have been arrested while some have been charged and taken to court, Minister Rohee said to talk about the crimes that are committed but conveniently omitting the work of the police is doing a great disservice to the country’s law enforcement agencies.
“While the media give front-page coverage to the crimes that are committed, it does not give the same kind of coverage to successes that the police have scored in these matters,” he said, and called on the public to keep supporting the efforts that are being made by the police, and to get involved so as to make the country a safer place through a collective approach. (GINA)