Burke fights back, secures local attorneys “to review police harassment,” violation of rights

In the continuing saga between Government of Guyana and United States-based Guyanese Rickford Burke, he has since sought legal counsel from the law firm of Hughes, Fields and Stoby in collaboration with Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and attorney-at-law Dexter Todd. Burke, told Village Voice News the matter where the Guyana Police Force has turned up on his premises in the United States of America to serve summons, that “this is not a matter of service of notice…this is a criminal matter where they have invaded my residence.”

Guyana Police travelled to America

The Guyana Police Force in statement issued Tuesday, 19^th December  2023 said Assistant Superintendent of Police Rodwell Sarabo left Guyana on 13^th December, 2023 and travelled to the USA and on 16^th December 2023, Sarabo met with Mark Wesserman, a Process Server based in the USA and they served both defendant summons on Burke at his home address at Maple Street, Brooklyn, New York.  The police said both defendant summons were read to Burke and he said he understood. Burke denied that happened.

In a statement release by his organisation, the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID), the Guyana Police Force is accused of abusing its powers to repress critical speech against the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government, acting outside of its jurisdiction and ultra vires the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Burke is CGID President

CGID said Burke who has not returned to Guyana since 1998, publishes a twice-weekly news and opinion talk show on Facebook and YouTube titled “Conversation with Rickford Burke,” protesting what he believes to be corruption inside the current PPP government of Guyana and racist policies and practices. The PPP government is not happy, stated the organisation.

Recounting Burke’s side of the story the organisation said on “16^th December 2023, Officer Rodwell Sarabo of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), and an individual identified as Mark Owen Wasserman, while brandishing firearms, trespassed on his Brooklyn residence and accosted him on his steps of his Brooklyn home. It has now been confirmed that the armed men were agents of the despotic PPP government of Guyana, announced that it is imposing fabricated criminal charges against him in Guyana for speech against the PPP government Mr. Burke made in the United States that is protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

The Charges

The Police in its statement said Burke is scheduled to appear before the Vigilance Magistrates Court in Guyana on 28^th March 2024 to answer following offences:

• The excitement of hostility or ill-will on the grounds of Race, under the Racial Hostility Act.
• Sedition under the Cyber Crime Act.
• Use of a computer system to coerce and intimidate a person, under the Cyber Crime Act.
• Seditious Libel contrary to common law.
• Seditious Libel under the peace under the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act
• Inciting public terror under the Criminal Law Offences Act

The organisation said the police presence on Burke’s premises constituted an illegal invasion, the charges are manufactured and what is clear is that “on November 8, 2023, the Guyana Police Department clandestinely filed false, malicious, and fraudulent charges against Mr. Burke in the Magistrate Court of Guyana alleging Mr. Burke conspired with others in Guyana, whom he has never met, nor spoken to, to extort GUY $150,000 from Afras Mohamed, owner of BM Soat car dealership.”

Further, CGID said, the Guyana Police Force and Courts of Guyana have no jurisdiction to regulate and police speech of Guyanese in America or to serve criminal charges on anyone in the United States.

Burke denied being served

CGID is adamant Burke was not served the summons. “Mr. Burke was never served with a document, and did not sign for or accept a document. The [officers] left pieces of paper of Mr. Burke’s steps, which were retrieved and taken as evidence by the [New York Police Department] NYPD.”

CGID said Saturday, 16^th December 2023, at approximately 10:55 a.m. Burke was departing his residence for Church, accompanied by a colleague, when Sarabos and Wasserman, reportedly “both armed with pistols,” rushed into his fenced yard, and straight up the stairs to the front door where they obstructed his departure from the residence, while one of the officers was videotaping.

One of the officers reportedly enquired who is Burke and “attempted to shove unidentified papers in his face” but this was ignored, CGID said. Further, the US-based organisation reported Burke requested the officers leave his premises, he locked the doors to his home, descended the stairs, exited his yard, and left for church in a waiting vehicle.

CGID further stated the officers remained on Burke’s premises and were later observed rifling through documents and correspondence in Mr. Burke’s mailbox, a matter the organisation said was reported to the United States Postal Services. Mail tampering is a federal crime in the United States.

According to CGID, Burke had contacted the New York Police Department (NYPD) about the incident and the matter is under investigation by both the NYPD and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).