The democracy that killed Junior Orin Boston, and divides us..

Democracy

On the dawn of the International Day of Democracy 2021 , 15 September 2021, police broke into the home of Junior Orin Boston at Dartmouth Village, Essequibo and killed him.

The family of Junior Orin Boston has called for an independent investigation. The villagers of Dartmouth have come on the road, blocked the road. The Guyana Police Force has said they can do the independent investigation themselves. 

In the democracy, the institutions can reject calls from the citizens who do not trust them. In the democracy, the Guyana Police Force does not see the benefit of transparency, of opening its procedures and investigations to the independent team. 

Warhead, war

Stabroek News reports that the Government Pathologist removed a 'warhead' from the body of Junior Orin Boston. Warheads are apparently meant to kill when they enter, rather than say wound or subdue. 

On the International Day of Democracy 2021, Guyana's police thought it was okay to arm themselves with weapons to break into a home , weapons which could kill more quickly than say bound copies of the Constitution pelted at citizens.

The Guyana Police Force reject that the word 'murder' has been used by the family.  Murder apparently is 'unlawful' and 'premeditated'.  

When bandits and police arm themselves before breaking into our homes with weapons which have bullets, don't they mean that they will use them and death and injury could  be the result?

Division

Pandit Bharrat gave the police intelligence that citizens were waging terror on his family.  The Police did not use this intelligence, the warheads were not invoked to smash the music sets and to maybe bring some sense to the young men.. The Guyana Police Force has not reported why they did not use the intelligence from Pandit Bharrat.

Were they concerned that they might have killed the men who went on to kill Pandit Bharrat? Was the Guyana Police Force not equipped to stop the men from being guests of the state?  

The PPP has visited Pandit Bharrat's family and said the killers will be brought to justice.  The police also visited the family

The PNC has visited the family of Junior Orin Boston, and have called for the independent investigation.  The police visited the family too.

The Police have made no commitments to change any of the procedures which resulted in the warhead entering Junior Orin Boston's body. 

The police have made no commitments to change any of the procedures which enabled the young men to beat Pandit Rishi Bharrat to death.

The rest of us who watched the PNC attempt to rig the 2020 elections and do not want police to kill citizens and do not think police bullets could kill or injure us..  if we had gone out on the road too .. socially distanced and masked and show solidarity with the family of Junior Orin Boston.. would have been told where were we when the PNC are rigging by people who do not see the benefit of an accountable, transparent police force which serves the family of Junior Orin Boston and Pandit Rishi Bharrat, and all of us?

But we are divided, fragmented. Can't talk up now because you end up on one side or another, not on some far away third side which is not about PNC or PPP or black or coolie or vaccinated or unvaccinated, but some space which is about us, human beings having to be interdependent.

Accountability

President Ali has demanded accountability on an apparently more critical national issue than police killing a citizen.

 President Ali has joined with PNC and PPP supporters to ask Cricket West Indies why Shepherd not on some cricket  team. The President wants answers from CWI. We hear though that CWI is a private body, and without accountability.. without accountability and transparency just like the Guyana Police Force it seems.

The President apparently does not have the power to invoke, or maybe  does not see the benefit of an independent investigation into the killing of Junior Orin Boston. 

The President apparently, like all PNC and PPP Presidents before him, seems to think that opening up the institutions to external scrutiny is dangerous to the democracy they control which divides us all the time.

As we battle with Covid, in our segments and fragments, the President demands of CWI what he does not demand of the Guyana Police Force and what cannot be demanded of him.