City Hall bullying should not be tolerated

Dear Editor,

The latest example of high-handedness by Georgetown City Hall, as reported in Stabroek News (17/10/15), is the announcement by City Public Relations Officer Debra Lewis that “persons caught littering are arrested by the officers and taken to City Hall where they are given a lecture by Lewis and charged.”

As reported, their pictures will then be taken and circulated to the media as part of a ‘name and shame’ campaign. The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is calling on the Government to stop this sort of campaign and to the media to stop supporting it.

In addition to ‘name and shame’ the other two parts of the new campaign are “the M&CC will also be placing more bins around the city” and “later in the year, the Council will organise community talks to raise awareness about littering.” The sequence of the three parts of the campaign speaks volumes about the incompetence we have come to expect from City Hall over the years.

Indeed “the Council hopes that the first step will bring enough attention to the issue” so that the education campaign won’t be needed, reflects approaches to governance which have no place in a modern society.

It would seem, however, that the districts where those who cause most garbage disruption reside (owners of some business places and some vendors) have nothing to fear, since the ‘seven roaming’ members of the City Constabulary “will particularly target inhabitants of Bourda and Lacytown”, for no other reason presumably than that the City Constabulary can’t be bothered to ‘roam’ any further afield.

Moreover, from where does a Public Relations Officer derive powers to order the City Constabulary to do anything, much more promote this level of harassment on citizens? For years the sight of City officials indulging in slanging matches, confrontations and ‘busings’ as the routine way of doing Council business has become a standard feature of the evening news.

The self-righteous tone of the campaign should be tempered by the City Council’s recalling its own major contribution to bringing the City to the dreadful state which required the unprecedented efforts now underway to restore it.

The first people charged by the City Constabulary some time ago for littering had tossed cigarette butts onto the streets, following the introduction of the Environment Act.

Magistrates, to their shame, fined them rather than upbraid the City Constabulary for making a mockery of the Act.

Similarly, the GHRA calls on the relevant political authority, the Magistrates and the media to discourage what appears to be another discriminatory and ill-judged campaign from City Hall.

Furthermore, we believe the media should desist from supporting this type of campaign and apologise for having already published lists of names provided by the Council.

Guyana Human Rights Association