Wismar, Linden — Another young Black life extinguished. Another family shattered. Another African-Guyanese community left traumatized, angry, and grieving under the weight of brutal state violence.
The police killing of Ronaldo Peters in Linden is not an isolated incident. It is part of a chilling pattern of state-sanctioned violence against African-Guyanese, a practice that has become far too familiar under the PPP government. Today’s horror, when police reportedly fired live rounds into a crowd of protesters, killing a young man known only as Dan Johnson, marks yet another bloody chapter in Guyana’s history of racialized law enforcement.
Eyewitness accounts are damning. Chaos erupted as police, armed with live ammunition, opened fire on unarmed citizens gathered to protest the killing of Peters. One resident described the sickening scene: “They had live rounds in the crowd. You shoot — where? Straight in the eye.” The bullet tore through the young man’s face, ending his life in front of a stunned, terrified community.
The aftermath was pandemonium. Businesses shuttered their doors. Taxi drivers fled the streets. Chinese-owned stores locked up immediately. Schools like Silver City Secondary were forced to send children home as panic sweeps through the town. The streets of Linden are once again soaked in fear and mourning.
Deputy Mayor Dominique Blair voiced the community’s outrage, demanding a full, impartial investigation. In a heartfelt statement, Blair declared, “Trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve is vital. When that trust is broken, we must come together—not only to seek justice but to ensure accountability.”
But in Guyana, African communities have seen this movie before. We have seen it too many times.
Linden, a majority-African town, has become ground zero for police brutality in this country. The echoes of Alan Wade, Selwyn Boyer and Ron Sommerset, gunned down by police in 2012 during a protest over electricity tariffs, still haunt the community. Dozens were shot then; three were killed. Promises of justice were made then, as they are made now. And yet, history repeats itself.
It is no coincidence that Indian-Guyanese communities, even during heated protests, have never faced this kind of extrajudicial slaughter. They protest over land, over sugar jobs, over politics, and the state responds with dialogue and restraint. African-Guyanese communities protest against police killings and poverty, and they are met with live ammunition.
The message from the PPP government is chillingly clear, Black lives in Guyana are disposable.
President Irfaan Ali’s response has been predictably hollow. He claims that the officers involved are under “close arrest,” promises a full investigation with regional oversight, and pleads for calm. But these are the same empty platitudes we heard after Boyer, Wade and Sommerset were killed and after countless other African-Guyanese men extrajudicially murdered across Guyana, who never saw justice.
And still, no reform. No accountability. No systemic change.
The Guyana Police Force, under the watch of the PPP regime, continues to operate as an unrepentant, militarized force against Black communities. Their actions are emboldened by a government that preaches unity but governs with division, keeping African-Guyanese communities economically marginalized and politically silenced.
Worse still, these killings happen in the context of a government that keeps wages low, punishes private sector workers with oppressive taxes, and ensures that the gap between the privileged elite and the working poor continues to widen. Now, they use the barrel of a gun to enforce that inequity.
“This is state terror, plain and simple”, stated one citizen at the protest.
“There is no justification for live rounds at a peaceful protest. None. This was not a military operation. This was not an armed insurrection. These were citizens, exercising their constitutional right to demand justice for a young man killed by the very people sworn to protect him.”, said another bystander. Enough is enough!”
“Guyana cannot continue to operate two systems of policing, one of appeasement for Indian-Guyanese communities, and one of execution for African-Guyanese citizens. We, as a nation, must call this what it is; state-sponsored racial violence”, stated a member of the bar who wished to remain anonymous.
The people of Linden, and every African-Guyanese community across this country, deserve justice. Not investigations that go nowhere. Not presidential statements that pacify. Not deputy mayor speeches that fade into memory. They deserve action. They deserve accountability. And most of all, they deserve to live.
