AS a concerned citizen, I must show my disquiet and disdain for the actions of persons who took advantage of persons trapped in their vehicles or otherwise stranded, on Thursday evening, as a result of the Agricola protest. Whatever effect was intended by the protest (or was it intentional) was lost, due to the criminals who took advantage of a dire situation which affected thousands of commuters.I was able to witness first hand, groups of young men armed with cutlasses, knives and pieces of wood robbing and terrorising persons at will, with only token resistance. One can only imagine what would have happened if more of those commuters had decided to take matters into their own hands and fight back against those who were bent on taking others’ hard- earned belongings.
The police ranks on the ground during the events at Agricola (not sure about Stabroek) should not have let that situation escalate out of control for so long. Protesting is fine as long as it’s peaceful; once persons started to destroy public property and harm passersby, all bets are off. The picture in Thursday’s Kaieteur News front page illustrates my point clearly! Let me paint a scenario: protestors block the road, ranks respond. The road is cleared, ranks step back and the roads are blocked again. The back and forth go on for a while then chaos erupts. A simple solution….why not adopt some of the tactics used overseas to quell the situation and just video (several cameras from various angles are best) to back up your decisions. Remember the adage, “Train hard, fight easy”.
I know the police force is under pressure for some of the nonsense done by its members, but by no means is this any excuse to drop the baton so to speak. Officers need to take command of their charges and just do the right thing. The force is supposed to serve and protect; and for many of those robbed last evening, through no fault of their own, it was a disservice that they weren’t afforded protection when they most needed it.