By Daniel DaCosta and Gitanjali Singh
Stabroek News
June 5, 2001

A protest against rampant crime on the Corentyne turned ugly yesterday morning with boisterous residents blocking the road outside the Albion Police Station, attacking vehicles and assaulting a magistrate.

Up to last night the situation remained the same and poles from a stranded vehicle were used to block a road while a low-bed trailer was also commandeered for this purpose. Tyres were also set alight to help block the roads and the residents vowed to remain on the road all evening in action reminiscent of the unrest on the East Coast of Demerara following general elections. There were also unconfirmed reports that the police had fired shots into the air to bring the situation under control.

The outburst of discontent at Albion came even though some of the residents had met with Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj a day earlier to discuss their grouses.

The police were hopelessly outmatched in their efforts to control the crowd of hundreds of Albion residents a section of whom committed the violent acts. Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis yesterday afternoon told Stabroek News that some support was being sent out from Georgetown to Albion "but not out of any perceived deficiencies". He said that a team of senior officers will be in the area to review the procedures for ensuring that the necessary support was available to the police in the various communities. The team, he said, would be in the area over the next few days.

The police force has come in for stinging criticism over the last few weeks following a string of robberies and it was outside of the Albion police station that residents vented their anger.

After starting peacefully yesterday morning, the protest turned ugly less than two hours after it had begun. Long lines of vehicles bound for New Amsterdam and the Upper Corentyne were forced to queue up on either side of a bridge outside the Albion Police Station for several hours as protestors refused to allow them passage. One mini-bus was attacked by a section of the unruly crowd after a passenger allegedly slapped a female protestor. The driver and his passengers were forced to abandon the vehicle and seek refuge in the police station.



Magistrate attacked

Magistrate Krishendat Persaud who was on his way home from a New Amsterdam Court was assaulted by a section of the crowd and had to abandon his car and seek refuge in the police station after he was attacked and attempts made to overturn his vehicle.

Persaud - who presides at the New Amsterdam Magistrate's Court - told Stabroek News by telephone that he left court at around 1 pm and when he neared the Albion Police Station he saw a crowd that he put at around 3,000. The crowd stretched along the road and he said that he continued driving believing that he would be allowed to pass. However, he said he was stopped and told to reverse his car as he would not be let through.

The magistrate said that the crowd moved in around the car so he suggested that he drive into the Albion Police compound. He said he started his car to do so but persons in the crowd began hitting the vehicle, punctured the tyre and took away his key. He said he came out of the car whereupon he was hit on his head from behind. He added that he eventually made it into the police station and later when he came out he found his car in the trench. Luckily it was not submerged as there was very little water in the trench.

On enquiring why they had done this, Persaud said the residents hurled abuses at him relating to the conduct of magistrates and said that magistrates were letting criminals go and not placing them on enough bail. Persaud said his replies fell on deaf ears and he was forced to walk past the Yolanda Cinema to catch a bus home.



Unruly band

Earlier, as a section of the crowd remained peaceful another section became unruly. A canter truck transporting DDL products was pillaged while the wheels of the mini-bus which was attacked, were removed and the passenger windows broken. One passenger was also assaulted. A small band of policemen and officers initially tried in vain to remove the crowd from the public road but were eventually overwhelmed by an unruly band and were forced to retreat to the safety of the station.

The protest which followed one on Friday began just after 10 am with a march from Rose Hall town to the Albion Police Station. The protest was organised by Dr Veerasammy Ramayya, a senior member of ROAR based in New Amsterdam who called on Berbicians to "come out and support the protest" on a television programme on Saturday night. However, even he was unable to control the crowd as it became unruly and intimidating.

As a team of media workers including this newspaper's Berbice representative and Little Rock Television Station's Editor-in-Chief, Daniel DaCosta attempted to leave the scene at around 1 pm they were prevented by a group of unruly protestors comprised largely of Albion sugar estate employees - who are not at work because of the out-of-crop season. The media workers were told that the vehicle which they were using would not be allowed to leave the scene outside the police station.

Some protestors suggested that the vehicle should be left at the scene and the operatives walk back to New Amsterdam. The team was prevented from leaving the scene by a group which blocked the main road rejecting pleas for safe passage. One protestor threatened to relieve one of the reporters of $1,000 as payment for safe passage while others became abusive.



Vigilante exercises

Some of the protestors carried placards stating: "We need sleep", "Gajraj must go", "We need guns", "Bandits must die", "We need protection" and "We need respectful police at Albion". One large banner read: "Licensed business owners should obtain firearms without any bribe." A significant number of protestors were women. According to some "our husbands have to work all day and then keep vigilante at nights. We intend to protest until we get what we want." Said one irate woman: "We are here because of the rising levels of crime in the area and the fact that the police seem unable to do anything about it".

A number of protestors told this newspaper that they were prevented by the police at Albion from conducting vigilante exercises with cutlasses. They expressed disgust over the fact that no police ranks are available at nights to accompany them on patrols while only one or two police ranks are on duty at night at Albion. They claimed that on several occasions when they approached the station at nights for assistance to apprehend bandits they are told that only two ranks were present. The Corentyne has been rocked over the past few weeks by a spate of armed and violent robberies and villagers are calling for an increased police presence and protection particularly at nights.

Commander of "B" Division Assistant Commissioner Paul Slowe met with representatives of the protestors last Friday to listen to their concerns.

Slowe told Stabroek News that the concerns of the protestors were being addressed. Slowe speaking with this newspaper at around 3 pm yesterday afternoon said the police were monitoring the situation at Albion and were prepared to take whatever action was necessary to restore order and the smooth flow of traffic.

Some protestors said that they had lost confidence in the ranks stationed at Albion including the sergeant.

According to others, the police station needs to be investigated, new ranks should replace the present ones and adequate weapons should be made available to the station.

Earlier a band of protestors invaded the police station demanding the release of a colleague motor-cyclist who was arrested by the police for an alleged traffic offence. The man was apparently charged and released into the hands of the crowd who then left the compound and resumed their protest outside the police station. Before converging on the public road outside the station the protestors had marched from the Albion Bridge to Rose Hall town and back to the police station chanting slogans.

A number of lawyers returning from court were caught in the traffic jam and chaos. Up to last night traffic was snarled and still unable to flow in either direction as the police grappled to clear the roadway.



Utility poles

A resident of Albion told Stabroek News by phone that after the incident involving the magistrate, a Guyana Power and Light truck which attempted to pass was stopped and the utility poles on it were employed as road blocks. A low-bed trailer which attempted to pass was also stopped and used as barrier to traffic. As a result, the area between the Yolanda Cinema and the Albion Police Station became a passenger terminal with buses on either side being forced to stop and offload their passengers.

The Albion resident, who had been on her way to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri said her vehicle had attempted to use a side road about a mile off the main road to get around the obstacle outside the police station. However, she found this secondary road also blocked, this time by rubbish, and wondered how she would make it to the airport.

The meeting between the residents and Minister Gajraj took place on Sunday at Doctor Bush and there was supposed to be another one yesterday at the Albion Community Centre. Gajraj could not be contacted for comment yesterday but sources say that at the Doctor Bush meeting which lasted for several hours he pointed out that there was a limited number of policemen and there was a difficulty in attracting people to the force. Residents clamoured for firearms and one resident told Stabroek News that Gajraj said that if the communities could organise themselves and select responsible individuals some of them would be considered for firearm licences. He further encouraged them to ensure that vigilante groups were converted into community policing groups. He promised to ensure that training was provided and that they were given access to communications equipment. Police escorts could also be provided.

There were around 200 residents in attendance and some of them were incensed that in the wake of the robberies and the police inability to do anything about them, vigilante groups were having weapons taken away from them. They were told that once they organised themselves into community groups this would not happen. There were reports yesterday that at the Albion Community Centre meeting the minister received a hostile reception and residents were not in a mood to listen to what he had to say.

Asked for his opinion on the protest action, Magistrate Persaud said he thought the protestors had a legitimate grouse in their dissatisfaction at the manner in which the police were treating their complaints. He ventured that the police stations are manned by adequate staff during the day but at night when they were most needed there was a skeleton staff.

Last Friday, a peaceful exercise was conducted outside the station but yesterday's action was on a much larger scale and more volatile. On Friday, the residents had complained that just before the elections there were around 15 armed robberies on the Corentyne and around 17 after including 'kick-down-the-door attacks'. "The people are tired of these attacks and the inability of the police to do anything about them", one demonstrator said. Several protestors told this newspaper that on more than one occasion they were told by ranks at the Albion Police Station that only two policemen were on duty when assistance was sought during night attacks by bandits.

On May 27, armed bandits broke into a home at Fyrish and brutalised a family before making off with $500,000 in cash and jewels. Last Thursday night, two families were beaten and robbed at Number One Village and at Fyrish. Last Friday night, a family at No.48 village was also robbed of approximately $1M in cash and jewellery. One protester has also complained that when he went to the Rose Hall police outpost to report a robbery in progress at his mother's home he found no one there. He however said he saw five policemen - three in uniform - at a nearby Chinese restaurant drinking.

Tensions have also risen over the sighting of a wanted murder accused, Mark Harry also known as `Jesus' who has been spotted in the company of several other men. There was reportedly an exchange of gunfire between him and the police but he was not apprehended. (With additional reporting by Patrick Denny)