Police concerned at 'apparent support' for criminals in Buxton/Friendship
Says appropriate action taken on all reports
Stabroek News
May 2, 2002
The Guyana Police Force says it is concerned about the "apparent support" lent to criminal elements in the Buxton/Friendship villages on the East Coast of Demerara.
In a press release yesterday, the police said that instead of seeking to castigate members of the force for perceived inaction, residents should take all necessary steps in helping the police to rid society of criminal elements. "The support and cooperation of the public has always played a critical role in assisting the force in its quest to ensure a safe society and we look forward for this continued assistance", the police said.
The police in the release also attacked a report in yesterday's Stabroek News headlined `Trouble in Friendship - Cops have taken hands off stance' [ please note: link provided by LOSP web site ]. That report had said that residents of Friendship were concerned that the police had not responded to several criminal acts in the area - including a shooting by one of the February 23 prison escapees.
The police in a release said that the article was "completely erroneous and sends the wrong signal to the public." However, the police release did not respond to the specific points raised in the news item and yesterday residents of the area with whom Stabroek News spoke maintained their position that the police had not responded to several crimes in the area.
The Stabroek News story, the police said, sought to portray that the police were afraid of venturing into certain communities especially the Buxton and Friendship villages, East Coast Demerara. A police source had told Stabroek News that there were concerns about traps being set for law enforcers in the areas particularly in the light of previous hostilities between the two sides. It was also pointed out that roads in the area were dug up by Friendship residents making operations in the area risky.
Apart from the statement being "absurd," the police said that they "wish to state that we are concerned about the apparent support lent to criminal elements in those areas."
Residents of the village on Tuesday had told Stabroek News that in spite of repeated calls over the shooting of a couple on the Railway Embankment Road and Friendship main road on Friday and the beating of a young man who witnessed the shooting, the police had not visited or made their presence felt.
Residents had expressed concern that the armed men, one of whom was described by the police as Shawn Brown, one of the February 23 prison escapees and the other as Compton Cambridge were operating with impunity. After the initial attack on Friday, residents had expressed concern that the attackers might return and they did. The residents said that if the police had been doing real work they would have staked out the area and would have had a better chance of apprehending the attackers.
On Monday afternoon Stabroek News asked the Police Public Relations Department to find out why the police had not visited the area since the Friday shooting incident and had been told that the department was not aware that the police had not visited the area.
On Saturday morning when Stabroek News visited the home of Brian Chester, where bullets had been sprayed on the bottom flat and the louvre windows broken just the evening before, the police had not yet visited the scene and warheads littered the ground. They were subsequently picked up by the occupants of the house and taken to the police station. That afternoon, the occupants who live at the corner of the Railway Embankment Road and Friendship main road where Chester and his reputed wife Dionne Glasgow were shot, had also not been visited by the police. The residents in that area, yesterday again told Stabroek News that the police had not been there as yet.
Then on Sunday, the young man who had witnessed the shooting was beaten with a gun butt by one of the men. In spite of repeated calls to the police no one came. Though the young man was beaten Sunday evening, because of the fear of leaving the home in the dark to seek medical treatment, the young man was not taken to the hospital until daylight the following day.
However, a resident told Stabroek News yesterday that for the first time since Friday's shooting incident a police vehicle with a number of policemen drove down the Railway Embankment Road as far as the junction at Brush Dam where they tooted their horn. They did not go further down the embankment road because the road had been dug up neither did they turn into Brush Dam but returned in the direction from where they came. (Miranda La Rose)