CONCERNS IN THE UPSURGE OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES

By Prem Misir, Ph.D.

Political Link to Criminality
Serious Crimes
Source: Criminal Investigation Department
The Media
US Criminal Deportees
Race Used to Explain Crime
Organized Crime

Some political elements in Guyana have now evolved into the realm of criminality. The result has been an upsurge in criminal activities, driven through terroristic behavior. Terrorism is the application of intimidation, fear, and violence to achieve political ends. What political ends? The answer is really the process of terrorism being used by some political elements in their attempt to bring down the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government, democratically elected in a free, open, and transparent election in 2001. We want to review some of the concerns in the fight against this new crime wave because of its impact on the Guyanese people and eventually political stability.

Political Link to Criminality
Daily political challenges to democracy, manifested through terroristic behavior, are the order of the day in Guyana. This challenge represents our first concern. These challenges are in unison with criminality that recently has induced an unholy upsurge in criminal activities. In order to sustain these challenges, the relevant political elements give the society a periodic dose of ‘intimidation transfusion’ to create terror in the hearts of innocent Guyanese. This political link to criminal behavior is not only the condition that accelerates the crime wave, but this condition motivates and remotivates criminals to believe that a political comfort zone exists to provide the necessary refuge for them when appropriate.
The new political link to criminality has to be addressed on two fronts: need to provide for legislation that will enable easier prosecutions of the relevant political elements; and to link up with international law enforcement mechanisms, conventions, agreements, and instruments for detection, apprehension, and prosecution of terroristic elements. Through its signing of the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism at the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly Meeting in Barbados last week, Guyana now can access external support to address terrorism. Guyana, also, could access support to detect, apprehend, and prosecute terrorists, through the United Nations Security Council resolutions, conventions, and international agreements.

Serious Crimes
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has not successfully eliminated crimes against the person and crimes against property, and therefore, these crimes remain a concern. However, it must be noted that the GPF has managed to reduce the prevalence of a few categories of crime over the last few years. Further, the PPP/C Administration, on average, has solid results in combating crime compared to the 1985 through 1992 period. The PPP/C Government also has been providing higher capital expenditures for both the GPF and the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) than its predecessor. These higher budgetary provisions did impact the crime rate downwardly in the PPP/C years.

The following Table provides a sense of the problem of serious crimes over the years 1974 through 2000.

Year	Total	Murder	Man Slaughter	Wounding with Intent	Burglary and Breaking Offences	Larceny	Arson	Rape	Other
1974	3735	62	5	318	1702	1248	37	157	102
1975	4018	60	-	378	1761	1427	59	143	112
1976	4792	75	4	102	2420	1816	44	103	124
1977	5652	80	6	315	2541	2298	49	110	164
1978	5673	92	6	465	2307	2369	22	95	114
1979	6248	92	2	476	2561	2662	50	113	110
1980	6055	108	9	171	2249	2907	61	101	115
1981	5875	103	5	196	2235	2919	22	111	128
1982	6049	114	7	186	2384	3055	72	94	135
1983	6466	127	16	221	3059	2756	13	86	162
1984	7173	114	9	358	3431	3016	11	61	111
1985	6349	132	6	707	2770	2419	3	100	112
1986	4730	75	8	601	2971	830	8	102	69
1987	4700	89	14	297	3249	727	7	137	93
1988	5244	89	11	232	3912	803	19	73	92
1989	5907	99	7	223	4582	761	11	105	85
1990	4182	90	24	171	3222	506	8	82	79
1991	7972	192	25	309	5787	1377	13	154	115
1992	5792	105	20	682	3674	1107	8	111	85
1993	6624	117	15	331	4825	1112	8	174	60
1994	5188	108	29	254	3912	583	29	111	85
1995	3425	109	31	246	2304	508	10	124	93
1996	3676	88	10	247	2425	572	15	119	200
1997	3233	87	12	238	2215	483	3	123	72
1998	4423	113	7	242	3337	562	4	105	53
1999	3905	91	10	206	2823	585	1	123	66
2000	4149	74	21	154	3186	524	2	117	71

Source: Criminal Investigation Department.
In the years 1985 through 1992, an average of 5609 reports of serious crimes per year was made, while for the period 1993 through 2000, there was an average of 4328. An average of 109 murders per year was committed between 1985 through 1992, while the average for 1993 through 2000 was 98. Today, the crime rate for several categories of crime has been reduced, except for execution-style killings over the last few years. The new political link with criminality with the capacity to sustain the current upsurge in crime, however, requires a different approach that demands a comprehensive security package and a review of the existing criminal legislation. The President responded last Friday at a State House Media Conference with a menu of comprehensive security measures that will arrest the crime wave.

The Media
Some media have a culture of hyping images and events through focusing on unusual events. So only the most dramatic illustrations of crime are brought to the people’s attention. People then develop the perception that such things as violent crimes or drug trafficking are increasing when they really are not. Currently, the media in Guyana focus intensively on killings, aggravated assault, and rape. But the crimes, such as, theft, burglary and breaking offences, and larceny, experienced most by the general public, do not receive adequate media attention, thereby reinforcing the perception that only violent crimes are increasing throughout Guyana. This type of media bias also is a concern that has to be addressed.

US Criminal Deportees
Another area of concern in the battle against crime is criminal deportees. Let’s examine the source of the US criminal deportation. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) of the US signed into law by President Clinton on September 30, 1996, introduced sweeping changes in immigration policy since the 1920s. The IIRAIRA Criminal deportees from the US to Guyana and the Caribbean have been convicted of aggravated felonies. There are two types of aggravated felonies – category crimes and sentence crimes. Category crimes are seen as aggravated felonies regardless of the sentence involved. Sentence crimes refer to those aggravated felonies that necessitate an imposed sentence of at least one year. Some specific crimes of violence have been used as a basis for deportation. Crime of violence – this type of crime is an offense that involves the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force, or any other offense that is a felony involving a substantial of physical force against the person or property may be utilized.

Crimes of violence are murder, physical assaults, drug trafficking crime, and illicit trafficking in firearms or destructive devices. Other crimes of violence considered aggravated felonies are felony drunk driving; aggravated driving under the influence; arson; involuntary manslaughter; criminal contempt; criminally negligent child abuse; sexual abuse of a minor; and statutory rape. These are all deportable offences for both legal permanent residents (Green Card Holders) and illegal immigrants.
Criminal deportees from North America have been a factor among other factors in the new crime wave in Guyana and the Caribbean. Indeed, criminal deportees have been intensively socialized in the criminal fields in the US. These deportees are in full possession of their US criminal tool kit. Indeed, their criminal training in a developed society gives them an advantage in the pursuit of criminal activities over Guyana’s local petty home-grown criminals.

Griffith (2000) pointed out that Guyana is confident that criminal deportees have produced an upward change in crime trends. In fact, Nolan and Rosales (1998) noted that a large number of deportees are hard-core criminals, and their return to their home countries has contributed to gang violence and to increased drug-trafficking in the region. Taylor and Aleinikoff (1998) indicated that foreign diplomats report that deportees is the main reason for penetratingly rising crime rates in the Caribbean and Central America. An official at the daily Gleaner said that “the island suffered one of its bloodiest years in 1996 in part because of the return of dangerous criminals. The 925 people murdered topped the 889 people killed in 1980 during the island’s worst election year” (1999).

Deportees with such criminal backgrounds who are posted back to Guyana and the Caribbean invariably will continue with the lifestyles learnt in the US. The deportees’ criminal activities in Guyana have not comprehensively been presented to the public. Clearly, a network of relationships grounded in criminal behavior exists among some deportees. Network rather than individually-produced crimes tend to have greater sustainability and productivity, and therefore, the network factor must be injected in any crime-fighting tactics and strategy.

Race Used to Explain Crime
Some people in search of solutions to the crime wave continuously use the race card as an explanatory factor when it really is applied as a camouflage for their own political ends. The application of the race card in explaining crime represents another concern in the fight against crime. The multiethnic nature of the Guyana society almost temptingly induces an individual to invariably use race as the explanatory or predictor variable of crime. The evidentiary basis for attributing the race factor to explain crime has to do with an oversimplified interpretation of the arithmetic on the number of East Indians and Africans robbed, killed, or otherwise victimized. It may very well be, indeed, that Africans have victimized East Indians more so than East Indians have victimized Africans in Guyana, or vice versa. What dilutes this oversimplified interpretation, however, is that this ethnic victimization trend also was a characteristic feature in the colonial era. In addition, the current crime wave shows a substantial ‘ethnic mix’ of the victims. If this is the case, can we then still say that the ‘ethnic’ interpretation of East Indian/African killings is reliable and valid? The answer must be in the negative. It may be that it is necessary but not sufficient to explain or predict East Indian or African killings. It may very well be that these regular ethnic killings may eventually evolve into the race card as the predictor (causal) factor for crime. Currently, there is no reliable and valid evidence to support the notion that race/ethnicity is the cause of the recent killings. Keep in mind the political link to criminality and the desperate and illegal efforts by some of these political elements to bring down the democratically-elected Government. This political link to criminal lawlessness is, indeed, one of several factors that explain the upsurge in criminal activities.

Organized Crime
Again, the many execution-style killings over the last few years cannot only be explained through race/ethnicity. Some may be targeted murders in the killing fields that signal the increasing presence of organized crime. This is another area of concern in the recent rise in criminality. Organized crime is bigger than the local police or military. Organized crime has global roots. Organized crime is the work of a group that controls relations between criminal enterprises engaged in narcotics trafficking, prostitution, gambling, racketeering, fraud, and the infiltration of authentic business. It distributes territory, fixes prices for illegal goods and services, and would even perform the arbitrator’s role in internal disputes. We must understand, too, that the operations of organized crime are increasingly global, especially in the area of drug trafficking and money laundering.

Attempts to curb the illegal drug trade have shown that these criminal organizations may very well have partnerships with similar type of criminal organizations in other countries, or may be a part of global crime cartels. Not long ago, the fact that the largest cocaine bust in Guyana, 6,940 pounds, aboard MV Danielsen demonstrated the immense technical attention paid to concealing this illicit drug, indicates that Guyana is a major transshipment route for the international drug trade. Some execution-style killings are generally selective and targeted and must be understood within the context of global crime cartels. To limit the explanation of these serious violent crimes to the race factor demonstrates minimum understanding of targeted killings and the global roots of crime, and would incorrectly reorient the local criminal justice system on to a path that de-monitors organized crime. In a small society as Guyana, organized crime can be quite visible, as seen in some recent gruesome killings. The race card will not work here, as it will lead us in the wrong direction in the pursuit of solutions to the increasing spate of crime.

If Guyanese believe that criminalization is limited to the racial scope and racial disposition of crime in Guyana, then they are allowing the violent cancerous criminalization to go unchecked. This all-pervasive criminalization is not tinged by race but by the self-perpetuating conspiracy that functions for profit and power, and that endeavors to obtain immunity from the law through fear, corruption, and murder.

It is this ubiquitous criminalization, addressing the areas of concern herein outlined, that the criminal justice system in Guyana needs to address. The Guyana criminal justice system has to be linked globally, and for starters with CARICOM. The international lens is now needed to focus on crime that today is linked to, political elements manifested through terroristic behavior, and to organized crime with global roots.
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