Dear Editor,

When a police officer dies in the line of duty, it becomes a stirring, moving event, and is very traumatic to his relatives and co-workers. Leon Fraser was not the first nor will he be the last to fall in the line of duty, but his demise is much more than that of an officer falling in the line of duty. He was bold, daring, fearless and from his behaviour and outlook, many persons might have warned him of his potential demise if he were to continue with that attitude. He continued. He met his demise.

Leon Fraser's behaviour ought to have been curtailed by his superiors, as allegedly, he was involved in many situations in which the image and respect of the police force which he claims to have represented, came into disrepute. Some of the images captured by the TV reporters were not indicative of bravery but of brashness and a disregard of the norms of proper behaviour by a person in authority and with arms as additional support. Neither his superiors nor those in positions to mend or correct such behaviour, took any positive action. Rather, the opposite seems to have been adopted. The huge outcry of extra-judicial killings fell on deaf ears even though there was and still is clear evidence to support such outcry.

The rumours of his deeds were common talk about Guyana. Attempts to bring him before the courts allegedly never made it past the starting point for the judicial system is clogged and labours laboriously to unclog itself. If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword, an ancient saying which in today's action will fit within the philosophy of Leon Fraser ... fearless, bold, daring, ever willing to show his strength and force .. regardless. In such circumstances his demise should not be unexpected. What is unexpected is the praise his current and past superiors now heap upon him despite the tarnishing he apparently did to the good name and poise of officers in uniform. The police should be respected, maybe feared a little, but not to the extent that Leon Fraser was. Facing him was in many cases facing death and there is a lot of evidence of that in the many reports of deaths when the team that he led moved in.

Hopefully Leon Fraser's death will see the end of the extra-judicial killings for now that the most feared cop is gone, arrests of and encounters with criminals will see most of them being taken in alive and not flung into the back of vehicles like carcasses, because they have been shot dead. It is amazing what indignities were done to bodies by his team when a person was shot dead, and no one dared raise a protest. That could only be viewed as cruel attitudes.

As I said, falling in the line of duty is not a pleasant thing, but equally so, you must dischae your duties in a fair, reasonable and humane manner. You cannot be judge and jury simultaneously. Hopefully, the rest of the team will pause and ponder over their attitudes, and use more guile and cunning to catch the 'wanted' ... alive.