Sitting ducks Editorial Stabroek News October 3, 1998 Stabroek News has literally ranted and raved endlessly about crime and its impact on the social and moral fabric of the country yet it seems to have had little impact on the decision makers. The much vaunted "measures" to stem crime do not seem to be weakening the resolve of criminals at all. There is nothing else we can add to this debate. However, the time must be approaching when there will be some reckoning on this issue and the clamouring public will have to see a tangible signal that the government and the police are taking this virulent affliction seriously. The dastardly murder of vehicle importer Mohamed `Akbar' Hussein at the middle of the day on Thursday in a busy part of town raises two conundrums anew for the government and law enforcement. The first is that a machinery of death is at work in the country. One that targets businessmen and others, lays out a plan and coolly executes murder without much fear of the police. Reports abound of hired hit-men flying in from abroad for a kill and exiting the country the next day. The array of weapons these mercenaries bring to bear is of a much higher calibre than those the police are outfitted with. Businessmen have become sitting ducks with little hope of protection from law enforcement or the government and the tide shows no sign of abatement. Secondly, it is quite obvious that Indo-Guyanese businessmen have become the choice targets of these merchants of death. They have been indelibly registered in the cross hairs of the murderers' weapons. What are they to do? Keel over and give up their wealth? Migrate from these shores? Hire small private armies to watch over their every move and those of their family members? The government and police should give them some answers. The impunity with which these murderers operate has immensely frayed society's feeling of security and peace of mind. The pervasive question is who is next and how will they go? As morbid and fatalistic as that thought is, it is precisely that which is coursing through the consciousness of the business community, householders and the average citizen. For many years now Police Commissioner Laurie Lewis has been lamenting the drawbacks his force faces in attempting to extirpate crime. Sadly his entreaties to the government seem to have fallen on deaf ears. If his efforts continue to have no effect then clearly the right thing for him to do is to reconsider his options. As to the government, it has had a lame duck attitude to coping with crime as embodied in its previous Home Affairs Minister. Its new Home Affairs Minister has a variety of other responsibilities including performing the functions of President in the absence of President Janet Jagan, responsibility for natural resources, utilities, public works etc. Can he perform effectively in the Home Affairs arena with this overburden? It is hardly likely. There has been an epidemic of outrageous crimes committed recently and the perpetrators have thrown down the gauntlet to the government. The list of crimes is long and the law enforcement response in most of these cases has been inadequate. So what will the sitting ducks do? An emergency response is needed from the government and not one that speaks of community policing groups pitching in or businessmen funding their own protection or exclamations of the government's seriousness about applying the death penalty. Real action is required for an effective law enforcement response to the crime crisis that threatens the country. Forget the social contract for the moment, give the country one on crime now.