| -is there a police torture unit? By Dale Andrews The recent withdrawal of the murder charge against Chaka Chase by the DPP may be indicative of the malaise that has probably engulfed the Criminal Investigations Department over the years.Crime Chief Seelall PersaudIn fact it speaks volumes for the relationship between the hierarchy of the CID and the office of the DPP.“The DPP’s action in relation to the Chaka Chase matter is totally correct in law. It tells you that something is terribly wrong with her relationship with the CID,” a Police officer opined.The DPP had demanded that the file on the Chaka Chase murder charge be brought to her, after the suspect had already been taken to court by the Police.“I can’t recall a man being charged for murder and the next day the DPP withdrawing that charge. Once again the Force has hurt the family of the deceased. One would have thought that with Romain Cleto being one of their own, all the investigating skills of the Guyana Police Force would have been brought to bear on this case,” a former police officer with CID experience explained.Earlier this year, the DPP also had cause to publicly chide the Guyana Police Force over what she described as sloppy investigative work.Her comments had prompted a feeble response by the police.“What has happened has damaged the image of the Force, irreparably,Cheap Jerseys From China, especially given the amount of training that ranks are going through,” another officer stated.If what is being revealed by some staff at the Police Headquarters, Eve Leary is true, then there is a ‘torture unit’ at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Head Office.The revelations come in the wake of recent disclosures by at least two persons, one a murder suspect and an alleged eyewitness,White NFL Jerseys Cheap, that they were subjected to electric shocks and other harsh physical treatment at the hands of operatives at CID headquarters.Staffers at the Police Headquarters, who spoke on condition of anonymity,Adam Joseph Duhe Dolphins Jersey, said that they have heard screams coming from the Criminal Investigations Department on a nightly basis and they are sure that they were the screams of criminal suspects.One staff said that she was not surprised by the allegations made by murder suspect Chaka Chase and the woman who police said had identified him as one of the persons in a car that was used in the fatal shooting of policeman, Corporal Romain Cleto.The revelations would also come as no surprise to many Guyanese who reacted angrily to a photograph published by this newspaper back in 2009, depicting a teenager,NFL Jerseys From China, who was also a suspect in a murder, with a badly scarred genital area.While the police have been denying the recent allegations,Nike Air Force 1 Uomo, the image of Tywon Thomas’s burnt genitals could not escape a thorough investigation and the subsequent charging of two policemen.Two senior officers, including a divisional commander, were also casualties of that episode that the Guyana Police Force would have done well to put behind them.Ever since Toyin Anderson from the infamous Linden ‘Blackie’ London gang had to be hoisted into a courtroom following a brutal beating by the police, open evidence that suspects were suffering torturous treatment abounded.DPP Shalimar Ali-HackThere was the case of David Leander, called ‘Biscuit’, who also had to be physically carried into a courtroom.Kaieteur News understands that the same names that are being called in connection with the recent allegations of torture were also linked to the Leander beating.A police officer said that the increasing number of allegations from criminal suspects at the hands of the police is becoming troublesome for the majority of senior officers of the Guyana Police Force.It is also the view of many present and serving officers that unless the police office of professional responsibility is given some kind of independence to conduct its work with regards to investigating alleged transgressions such as torture by members of the Force, the perpetrators could always get off without facing prosecution.“The OPR is a creature of the Commissioner of police. Its head has to report to the Commissioner. If the Commissioner or the Crime Chief does not order an investigation into this recent allegation, the OPR cannot do anything,” one officer explained.And since the police have flatly denied the allegations of torture, an investigation may not be forthcoming.It is the widely held view by some senior officials that within the past six or seven years,College Jerseys, investigation in the Guyana Police Force has been replaced by physical violence against suspects, in what may be a response to the spiraling number of unsolved serious crimes.At the last Police Officers’ Conference a few months ago, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had declared that he was dismayed by the large number of unsolved serious crimes, especially since the government has been investing heavily to enhance the capacity of the Criminal Investigations Department.His concerns received a lukewarm response from Crime Chief Seelall Persaud during his presentation to the officers immediately after.The Crime Chief brushed the concerns aside, using figures which gave a farcical impression that all is well. |
