Cops, robbers…

…SOCU and SARU

After seven months of going after the “bad guys” – the People’s Progressive Party…who else? – facts are just starting to come out that there is a mindset unfortunately justifying the worst fears of those who saw a “militarised” Government taking shape after May 11.

It all had to do with the operation that played out last week in one of the old-time, premier housing areas of the country – Kingston. First we learnt that three people died – in a “Carifesta Ave smash up”. A Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Sergeant and his wife were said to be overtaking another vehicle when they crashed head on into a Canter heading in the opposite direction. The driver of the Canter was also killed.

Occurring at 22:00h as the year drew to a close, most folks shook their head in sorrow as another record was broken in traffic-related carnage in our small country. Then the parent of the wife said her son-in-law, who’d been off-duty in the holiday period, had been called “to report back to Camp Ayanganna”, the GDF headquarters.

Asked as to what was going on, the Head of the Army said, “no comment”. We then learnt through “sources” that the Sergeant was actually in the “intelligence section” of the GDF and he’d been assigned to keep the CEO of NICIL, Winston Brassington “under surveillance”. So folks started to scratch their heads. Since when was the GDF authorised to conduct surveillance of civilians? Army personnel are deployed in civilian operations under the most pressing circumstances – and only in conjunction with the Police. We all know who takes the lead in “joint operations”.

So out came another titbit – again from “sources” and nothing “official”. Responses to questions by the latter made clams seem positively garrulous! The GDF Sergeant was actually conducting the surveillance for the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU)! More scratching of heads by concerned citizens – but not by the chattering class that normally does the cheer-leading for the Government. They also clammed up.

After all, SOCU was supposed to be tracking funds being laundered or diverted to terrorists. Was Brassington now being accused of violating the AML/CTF? Last we’d heard was that he was in the sights of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARU). Were SARU and SOCU now in bed with each other and with the GDF. This would be news to most…excepting to those who feared an Army Government.

And amidst more official stonewalling, came the coup de grace against the Government: revelations the GDF Sergeant was actually tailing the wrong person – a PPP MP, neighbour of Brassington.

And who, for the grace of God could’ve been killed. As could any one of us, also.

…and intelligence-led policing

The use of Army personnel to keep an eye on a civilian unfortunately echoes the incidents spelled out so graphically during the Rodney CoI. There, another GDF Sergeant – Gregory Smith – did eventually cause the death of the man he had under surveillance. And the then Army Chief also said he knew nothing about the operation. And here it is we thought “those days are over”. But as the fat lady says, “it ain’t over till it’s over”.

But what’s also troubling about the unfolding revelations is while the Disciplined Forces could find an intelligence officer at the drop of a hat to stake out Brassington, they’ve been unable to do the same in aid of the “intelligence led” policing we keep hearing about. And which was supposed to solve the “crime spiral” in tandem with the 2am curfew.

This is now back in force AFTER the holidays which saw four young men hack each other to death in rum-induced violence.