On this day, the police murdered three unarmed protestors

JULY 18, 2015 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER FEATURES / COLUMNISTS, FREDDIE KISSOON

Today marks the third death anniversary of three unarmed demonstrators in Linden. The subsequent outrage caused the PPP Government to hold a judicial inquiry with the State bringing two judges from abroad. The unambiguous findings of the Commission were that the police killed the three men. At the time, the officer on the ground manning the Riot Squad personnel was Assistant Superintendent, Patrick Todd and the Officer in Charge of the complete division at the time, Senior Superintendent, Clifton Hicken. Who gave the order to shoot the three unarmed men? No evidence implicated Todd and/or Hicken. Todd remains as Head of the Tactical Services Unit. Hicken has since been promoted to Assistant Commissioner of Police. Hicken has jurisdiction of ‘A’ Division which takes in the entire city of Georgetown and its environs. In which democratic country, a judicial commission finds the police culpable in the shooting deaths of non-violent protestors and there has been not even a day of internal investigation to determine who shot the men. Mr. Todd sits happily in his position. It was Mr. Todd who was the Commanding Officer when several APNU leaders were shot in the vicinity of the Square of the Revolution protesting the PPP rigging of the 2011 elections. During the reporting in the press of the mayhem in Linden, the then Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee, denied that on the day in question he was in communication with Hicken. Subpoenaed phone records proved Rohee a liar. The statute of limitation has not run out on this crime. The new government owes the people of Linden a further investigation into this tragedy. I heard a high APNU official said that the results were tied in the 2015 General Elections, but it was the extra five thousand votes the coalition got from Linden that put the APNU-AFC coalition over the fifty percent mark. If that is so, then the new APNU-AFC government is certainly in a moral dilemma over this crisis. One of the men who died from his gunshot wounds was mentally challenged. It is an unbearable memory. Making this tragedy even sadder was the fact, that two local Judges on the Commission recommended a total compensation package of US$15,000. One of the judges, former Chancellor Kennard, is reputed to own racing horses, one of which cost more than US$15,000. Justice Kennard, by the way is the Head of the Police Complaints Authority. He had held that position since Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. Does any citizen have faith and respect for the Police Complaints Authority? The other local judge on the Commission was Justice Claudette Singh. She is currently legal advisor to the Guyana Police Force. This is the craziest country in the world. One of the persons compensated in the Linden ordeal was a businessman who was awarded $500,000 for his truck that was damaged. Yet one of the dead men’s relative got a similar amount. This country is a circus with nuff laugh. A Canter truck is worth more than a man’s life. Are turtles worth more than people’s lives in Guyana? I remember a prominent businesswoman got a Caribbean award for saving turtles. When one of the employees for this woman was killed while on duty, the dead man’s wife never heard from the business lady. The dead man’s wife turned up at the office of the online news service INEWS to describe her feelings. Turtles must be special to this lady. Guyana is not only a tragedy and a circus, it is a bizarre tale of sound and fury signifying nothing (to borrow from Hamlet, a great philosophical work from Shakespeare that every political activist must read; if they don’t, they will end up in the madhouse after their energy and passion get their leaders into power after the election campaign or revolution is over). What country! Crazy police constables take a traffic bribe or remove evidence or solicit sex from a transgender and are hauled before the courts. But ranks from the Riot Squad shot three pro-democracy demonstrators dead and are still in the police force. I end with a story, the truth of which, my Kaieteur News colleague, Dale Andrews, can attest to. While shopping at the Bourda Green, a woman came up, “Mr. Kissoon you must write about this police officer who gambles every night at the casino.” In front of the lady, I called Dale to ask if he knows about it. He said yes. Do you know who that police officer is? You would get a heart attack if you know.