Protest spread to Crane

– as residents demand justice for youths killed recently

Story and photos by Joel Vogt

The gruesome murder of two Afro-Guyanese Berbician youths has pushed citizens from all across the country demanding that justice be served.

Early Wednesday afternoon, several residents of Crane Housing Scheme on the West Coast of Demerara  turned out at the Crane entrance to show solidarity with the families and friends of murdered teens, Isaiah and Joel Henry and Darel James who was found dead outside of the community’s ball field just a month ago.

During the peaceful one-hour protest, villagers were seen holding placards with “Wi seh Black Lives Always Matter”, “Stop the killing!” and “God Protect our Young Black Men Let them Live!” among others. They also repeatedly chanted “No justice, no peace. We need justice, black lives matter, we need justice for the murdered boys.”

Among the protesters were the parents of murdered Darel James, Errol James and Roxanne Bess, who both appealed for justice of their son’s death from the relevant authorities.

“All I need is justice, justice for my son and I’m calling on the relevant authorities to serve me justice. It’s not easy to raise your child for 21 years and have his life taken away just like that and if they [relevant authorities] have sons or daughters, they would feel the pain I’m still going through,” James said.

Meanwhile, Roxanne Bess expressed her dissatisfaction with the Guyana Police Force in carrying out the investigations.
“They have me on a ‘royal’ running around since the investigations have started. A little guy named Matthew, who was my son’s friend, knows exactly what happened, because he was standing on a bridge watching my son being murdered. So I told the police and welfare officers that the little boy knows, but they kept telling me something else.”

Wearing their masks and maintaining physical distancing, the protesters also sang National songs of Guyana, gospels and the famous reggae tune “How many more” and thanked protestors for showing their support and police officers who were present for security purposes.

Similar actions were seen on Tuesday afternoon as hundreds of citizens turned out at the Square of the Revolution to stand in solidarity as well. Former Minister of Education Dr. Nicolette Henry, parliamentarians Christopher Jones and Sherod Duncan and Guyana’s recording artistes Samuel Medas and Sakiu Andrews were among the protestors.

Joel Henry, 19, and Isaiah Henry, 16, were discovered dead in the Cotton Tree backdam, West Coast Berbice on Sunday afternoon sometime around 5:30pm. The young men were found with chop wounds about their bodies, including to their faces.

While 21-year-old Darel Levar James of 79 Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara was discovered dead in a pool of blood outside the Crane Ball field on August 2 at about 9 am.
Both the Henry and James’ families still await justice.