Adrianna Younge Deserved Better

Adrianna Younge was just 11 years old. A child. A daughter. A student. A light with her whole life ahead of her. On April 24, that light was extinguished under deeply troubling circumstances. Her body was found floating in the pool of the Double Day Hotel at Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, a place she had visited with family just a day earlier. The circumstances surrounding her death are gut-wrenching. But what has added insult to unspeakable injury is the response, more accurately, the failure, of the Guyana Police Force.

The public has watched in horror as the Force, the very institution entrusted to serve and protect, has fumbled, misled, and failed. From the outset, the police issued a now-debunked claim that the child had “left the hotel in a car.” That information was not just wrong, it was dangerously irresponsible. The child never left. She was there the entire time. Dead. Floating in a pool while the police fed the nation misinformation. Was this incompetence? Was it cover-up? Either possibility is disturbing.

This isn’t the first time the Guyana Police Force has failed the people, and tragically, it won’t be the last, as long as leadership remains as rotten as it currently is. Since August 2022, the Force has not held a single press conference. No meaningful engagement. No direct accountability. Just recycled, sloppy, and often discredited press releases sent out like afterthoughts. In an age of national unrest and spiraling public distrust, this silence is not just tone-deaf, it is criminal negligence.

At the helm of this dysfunction sits Commissioner of Police Clifton Hicken, a man who continues to treat his public office like a personal fashion runway while Guyanese children are dying. His leadership is defined not by professionalism or reform, but by gold chains, tight-fitting designer clothing, and flashy brand-name shoes. His public persona reflects a man more enamoured with performance than public service. Were he to take half as much pride in his duty as he takes in his appearance, Guyana might not be in the security crisis it finds itself in today.

Hicken has repeatedly shown himself to be unfit to lead. He has failed to face the public. Failed to take responsibility. Failed to provide transparency. And most of all, he has failed to protect the very citizens he swore to serve. Calls for his resignation are not only appropriate, but they are also overdue. That those calls are being resisted by a government that seems intent on enabling this dangerous status quo is yet another betrayal of public trust.

The government’s complicity in shielding Hicken from accountability is a stain on its legacy. Where is the leadership? Where is the strategy? Where is the voice for the voiceless? In a country starved for moral authority and true representation, the opposition must step up—not just to condemn, but to organise, mobilise, and lead. We are fast becoming a country adrift, with no one at the helm. The people need direction. They need protection. They need hope.

Adrianna Younge is not just a name. She is a symbol of all that is broken in this system. Her tragic death should not disappear into the fog of another police investigation that goes nowhere. Her name should echo in every chamber of power, in every headline, in every act of public resistance until justice is done—not just for her, but for every child, every mother, every citizen who has suffered under this regime of neglect and dishonesty.