On Saturday the Guyana Police Force told the nation that GavinKennard Douglas became aggressive, was restrained, and was later found frothing at the mouth in the lockups at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station. Meanwhile, the post-mortem conducted by the Government Pathologist has found that he died of a brain haemorrhage due to blunt trauma, and two Taser studs were removed from his body. His family, who witnessed the post-mortem, say that his intestines were ruptured. Guyanese are not surprised that the statement given by the police has turned out to be an exceedingly sanitised, if not downright misleading, version of events. What we are is outraged. We are shocked, and we are distressed by these findings, which suggest that one of our citizens was tortured in police custody.
We do not trust the police to investigate the police, and no Guyanese should be asked to. The investigation sits with the Office of Professional Responsibility, a unit of the Guyana Police Force. The four ranks arrested are being held by the Tactical Services Unit, another unit of the same Force. Eyewitness accounts now suggest that the station’s recordings may have been tampered with before senior officers arrived. A Force that has already given the nation a sanitised account of how Gavin Douglas died cannot be trusted with the evidence, and it cannot be trusted to tell us the truth about what happened to him.
President Irfaan Ali knows there is another way, because he has taken it before. In 2022, when police shot and killed Quindon Bacchus, the President told the nation that the Police Complaints Authority, chaired by retired Justice
William Ramlall was handling the investigation and would report to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Gavin Douglas deserves no less. The President must send this matter to the Police Complaints Authority today, and if the Authority is not constituted, the Police Complaints Authority Act provides for an ad hoc Authority to be appointed for a particular investigation. Those of us who lived through the Troubles, that dark period from 2002 to 2008, recognise this decline into disorder. We remember a time when rogue policemen and phantom killers operated with impunity, and when too many Guyanese died without anyone ever being held to account. That was under aPPP/C Government. It is under a PPP/C Government that Guyana is once again sliding back toward those dark days.
The State is required to treat every person in its custody with humanity and with respect for their inherent dignity, and to protect their life and safety. That obligation does not change with the person. It applies to Gavin Douglas. It applies to Constable Ryan Greene. It applies to the Leader of the Opposition, Azruddin Mohamed. It applies to every person in a police lockup or a prison cell, whatever they are accused of. Whatever he stood accused of, GavinDouglas deserved his day in court. Instead, the Guyana Police Force became judge, jury and executioner. This cannot continue.
Amanza O.R. Walton, M.P
Forward Guyana Movement
