The fatal shooting of five suspected bandits earlier this week by police, would have been called extra-judicial murders had it occurred under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP).
This is what the Leader of the Party, Bharrat Jagdeo is contending.
At a recent press conference hosted at his Church Street office yesterday, the former Head of State said that the government highlighted the incident as a success in the fight against crime. He was referring to comments made by the Acting Police Commissioner, David Ramnarine that was published by the government’s public relations machinery, the Department of Public Information (DPI).
Jagdeo posited that had the PPP made such an announcement there would have been furore.
“Just imagine the PPP in office and the exact thing happening. This would be now extra judicial killing by the racist PPP government trying to exterminate afro-Guyanese, as they said when they created that list of 400 people they said that we killed through extra judicial means and they included all the bandits and the victims and the policemen who were killed and you had nearly 100 Indo-Guyanese there.”
He is questioning the apparent silence of critics who were once vocal in their condemnations of the killing of bandits under the PPP.
“Today, the same thing happened but the narrative has changed and I don’t see the same groups that were out protesting against the PPP saying anything. It’s all quiet. So it just shows how prejudiced it was, how bias it was, how convenient those groups were.”
Last Tuesday, five suspected bandits were killed in an early morning confrontation with police at Turkeyen on the East Coast of Demerara. The men reportedly attempted to gain entry into a home.
Several small arms, an AK-47 and two shotguns were among the items that were recovered by police ranks.
Dead are Timothy St. Hill, Levi Braithwaite, Andrew Daly, Eon Forde and Jermaine Doobay.
