Community Policing Group cannot contain sophisticated, armed, gangster-like criminals.

Community Policing Group cannot contain sophisticated, armed, gangster-like criminals.

I am no security expert, but from a layman’s perspective, reviving of community policing group (CPG) will not ease crime in Guyana to the hopes of the new Home Affairs Minister. The Home Affairs Minister is hoping the revival of CPG would be part of the solution against violent crimes like those at Canal No. 2. (Source Stabroek News Editorial, Nov 02)

CPGs and their predecessors (local vigilantes) were meant to curb petty crimes not by confrontation but by prevention. The level of sophistication of the armed criminal gangs roaming the country today cannot be dealt with on the armed civilian level. Trained professionals like the police suffered many casualties over the years in confrontation with criminal gangs.

Mr. Home Affairs Minister, we do not need a step down from the police, we need a step up from the police, maybe a special task force to deal with these problems. A CPG group would be open target to the mob-like criminal elements.

Civilians can help in other ways, like mending long term rifts between communities due to racial, economical and political polarizations etc, with the help of all ministries within the Government. The last thing we need to do is encourage local militias to take the law into their own hands. I am not pacifist but look at the situation in Sudan for example, where the Government has civilian armed forces fighting against the Southern Rebels with accusations of genocide on both sides.

Guyana’s problems cannot be solved with any short term plan, we need a transparent security plan, one opened to public scrutiny, this is the only way we can discuss it, compare it against what have worked and what have failed in history, and also borrow from countries that faced the same situation we do today.