Sexual offences dominate consultation with religious bodies

Kaieteur News – April 24, 2008

While some police officers do an excellent job at assisting rape victims, there are others that do ‘very crappy’ work, says Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand.

The Minister was at the time speaking with religious leaders from different organisations, who turned out in their numbers yesterday to be part of the ‘Stamp It Out’ consultation hosted at the Ethnic Relations Commission.

She says that some police officers ask victims all sorts of ‘foolish’ questions, intimidating them even as they are making their report.

The Minister says that there are deficiencies with both the police and judicial systems when it comes to dealing with issues of rape.  

Police Wives’ Association gets new office

Kaieteur News – April 24, 2008

After more than 50 years of existence, the Police Wives’ Association has its own office. The office, which is located in the Police Officers’ Mess compound, was officially declared open by Deputy Commissioner Edward Wills and will serve to improve the work of the organization.

As the name suggests, the Police Wives’ Association is made up of the spouses of police officers and is usually headed by the wife of the serving Commissioner of Police.

It operates the Juliet Griffith Day Care Centre at Eve Leary and conducts many social activities aimed at empowering women both within and outside of the Guyana Police Force.

The Police Wives’ Association was formed in 1953 and was the brainchild of Mrs. Juliet Griffith, the wife of a former Senior Superintendent of Police.  

Protesters attempt to disrupt Carifesta launch

Stabroek News – April 24, 2008

As the protests against the issue of the Channel 6 suspension from the airwaves continued, protesters attempted to disrupt last evening’s launch of the tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta) even while President Bharrat Jagdeo expressed hope that the regional festival would bring unity.

Just before the official start of the proceeding, a small group of mainly women raised their voices shouting “No Carifesta” and “We want Sharma” among other slogans. Ringing a bell and blowing whistles the women shouted their slogans for a few minutes before the police attempted to restore order. Some persons in the crowd also attempted to calm them down.

During this time, a Stabroek News reporter was accused by some of the protesters of being from the state-owned NCN TV and Channel 65 and they apparently believed this was so and when the reporter took out a few photographs they shouted that they did not want NCN or Channel 65 there because “they does tell lies”.