Elements bent on criminalising black youths - Hoyte Guyana Chronicle August 3, 1999 PEOPLE'S National Congress (PNC) leader, Mr. Desmond Hoyte says elements in society are bent on criminalising black youths and he is urging young lawyers to make their services available, free of cost, whenever the occasion is warranted. He also dispelled as myth the notion that black people are spendthrift and not cut out for business. Hoyte made these observations Saturday night while addressing, for the first time, the annual all-night vigil and libation ceremony at the Public Buildings, Georgetown. With reference to the charges of criminalisation, he said just recently it was brought to his attention, through a newspaper article, that five young people found congregating in the streets were arrested by the Police and charged with loitering. According to the report, he said, two pleaded guilty and three not guilty. His contention is that there is no law against three or four persons standing on the streets and as such this does not constitute loitering. "There is no law which says that four or five people cannot stand up in the streets...", Hoyte argued. He said further that ignorance of this fact is causing persons to plead guilty when they are not, and have criminal convictions recorded against their names. On the issue of black people being spendthrift and poor businessmen, Hoyte said "if that is so, how is it that those people who came out of slavery, accumulated within a matter of a year or two vast sums of money to buy those estates which they turned into villages?" Contending that it is difficult to do business in a system which makes it well nigh impossible to access funding, Hoyte urged blacks to seek ways of strengthening their economic base so as to be in a better position "to interact in conditions of equality with other groups in this country". A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples