Dear Editor,
I have been following the press’s coverage about the 2 Child Protection Officers. Please permit me to offer a different perspective. I like every “Tom, Dick and Harry” have seen the video of 2 Child Protection Officers dragging the child. Those ladies do a difficult and thankless job. Let me make it unambiguous: I stand with the 2 Child Protection Officers. Ladies, thank you!
Child Protection is an area of social policy that intersects with Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Dependency. I am quite sure the reading public is aware that Juvenile Delinquency pertain to the criminal activities of minors. Juvenile Dependency is civil-where the state must step in to protect children from abuse, abandonment, neglect, exploitation, etc.
I have looked at the video and here are my impressions: The 2 Child Protection Officers in their professional judgment felt that they had probable cause to believe that the child was in danger. They approached the child with the intention of removing her from the perceived danger. At that point, the child could have peaceably left with the officers, and any “misconceptions” could have been resolved at the station or welfare office. Instead, she decided to pull a “George Floyd” and “she ain’t going”; the officers decided that for this child own good they will forcibly remove her. The child, egged on by the crowd and the ubiquitous cellphone camera, decided to “act up”-throwing herself on the ground. At which point, the officers had no alternative but to drag her. In my opinion, the 2 Child Protection Officers acted reasonably under the circumstances.
I urge Minister Vindhya Persaud-stand by the 2 Child Protection Officers. To penalize them would be to demoralize the people on the front lines and you will eventually undermine the very structure of Child Protection in Guyana.
Sincerely,
Roger Ally
Fort Lauderdale, FL
