…on life and death
Now that the smoke has cleared around Camp Street, it’s quite clear the dust hasn’t settled – and won’t for a long time. Yet nobody will be given the old heave-ho, that’s for sure!
It was a pathetic sight to behold those who were responsible for the prison walking around with their protruding bellies, pointing out authoritatively this and that to the President, as if explaining the whole sordid fiasco! And the “explanation’? “It was an accident waiting to happen”!!
An “accident” is when a mishap occurs with absolutely no warning. Here there was solid info floating around that a prison break was in the offing. A whole lotta people ignored or ducked these warnings. Maybe there ought to be a CoI to find out why? Was it bribes exceeding the quotidian ones necessary to supply the prisoners with phones and other items essential for modern times?
And so we’re told that all that ails the penal system will now be fixed! Yeah, right!! Your Eyewitness won’t even bring up the vexed question of why the recommendations from last year’s CoI weren’t even assigned to a task force – much less implemented.
NO, he won’t go there. He has a simpler test for the Government: to show the Guyanese people that this time things will be different. Just level about the number of convicts who’re on the loose; and, more importantly, nab them!
Does anyone in the Government appreciate the apprehension paralysing Guyanese people right now? It’s like a return to the days of the Buxton gang! The ineptness of those in charge of the “Big Jail” is so palpable after they were shown up by just half-a-dozen criminals, even petty criminals out there have been emboldened. Witness the brazen but well-coordinated daylight attack on that bus in front of Agricola-McDoom.
At least 8 bandits are loose; Agricola’s probably the most bandit-infested village in Guyana – and the police didn’t place a cordon around it? Schuups! And three hours after the murder of that poor bus driver – just trying to make an honest buck – troops run around Agricola firing indiscriminately -hitting one poor woman in the buttocks!! What a comedy of errors!!
Going into the last elections, if it was one thing the Coalition had going for them was their supposed better handle on the “security” question. With their top candidate being a Brigadier and half of the folks around him all be-medalled, that wasn’t surprising. Especially since the PPP never commanded the loyalty of the Disciplined Forces.
But they’ve blown that perception, haven’t they?? Like Humpty Dumpty, let’s see them put that together again!!
…on treating prisoners
Your Eyewitness was struck by one line from a warden when interviewed about the events leading to the Camp Street conflagration. She said it was around 3pm – “feeding time” for the inmates. Not “lunch” or “dinner” or “mealtime” – but “feeding time”. Maybe your Eyewitness is reading too much into it, but don’t we use ‘feeding time” when talking about animals? “Feeding time” for the cattle or the ducks or the hogs. But inmates?
From the Report of the CoI into the last conflagration, it was clear the inmates were in fact treated like animals – and feral ones at that. Now, maybe if we were dealing with all hardened, convicted killers, that may be OK – but at least half of the inmates were on remand!! They hadn’t even been given a trial. And for all we know, they could’ve been innocent!
All studies show that, almost invariably, the way you treat people, they’ll act to fulfil your expectations. So last Sunday the “animals” rebelled?
…on feeding time?
But looks like things became worse for the inmates after they were transferred to the Lusignan Jail. “Feeding time” came and went and no food.
The “animals” had to lasso a cow, slaughter and eat it. It was unclear if they cooked it.
