Opposition Leader, Joseph Harmon along several Coalition top officials today, met with the Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie, where several issues were discussed.
Other members of the team included: including Khemraj Ramjattan, MP; Roysdale Forde, MP; Geeta Chandan-Edmond, MP; Christopher Jones, MP; and Aubrey Norton, Executive Director of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition.
During that engagement, the team expressed its support of the work of the Guyana Police Force and asked that the vast majority of the members of the force try to execute their duties in a professional manner.
The team also extended commiserations that the members of the Guyana Police Force did not receive any salary increases in 2020 and that “none appear to be forthcoming for 2021”.
Further, the team outlined to the Commissioner, its concerns about the manner in which the Guyana Police Force is being ‘perceived’ by the public and the manner in which some officers were executing their duties.
“We outlined that based on the actions of the Police, many citizens have formed the belief that the Police Force has been weaponized by the political directorate to act against their political opponents, public servants and staff of the Guyana Elections Commission,” Harmon noted.
Also, the team expressed grave displeasure with the release of convicted prisoners without any public announcement about their identities.
“We posited to the Commissioner that this untenable situation is contributing to members of the public feeling unsafe and a heightened sense of unease. We noted that with several jailbreaks and the release of unnamed prisoners it has been contributing to the security situation in the country becoming unstable,” Harmon said.
