Opinion: Striking a Delicate Balance (Redirected)

This article has been migrated to: Editorial: Civilians Must Show Respect to the Police and Vice Versa on the Guyana, South America Official Website

24th of May, 2022. Region 6, Guyana, South America. GSA News

Police have a difficult task: contending with bandits, murderers, thieves, and lawbreakers and troublemakers in general. Consequently, they are trained to be tough, to handle offensive weapons, and to survive under dangerous circumstances. In light of this, the general civilian population whom the police are paid to protect and serve must offer a high level of cooperation. If the police are completely stripped of the respect which the uniform should naturally carry, then there will be an inevitable breakdown of law and order in the country.

On the flip side of the coin, there are those corrupt officers who give all police a bad name: those who demand bribe, use their office as cover to harm innocent people, and exercise unnecessary violence against civilians. These kinds of behavior, which deteriorate respect for the police force, must be condemned, reported, and punished forthwith.

The case of the police officer engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a civilian in New Amsterdam is one in which the police officer reacted naturally in defending himself and was well within his limits. The video also shows that the officer exercised great restraint after subduing his opponent since we all know that under such circumstances, it is difficult to contain oneself.

An alert citizen on the other side of the road, foreseeing what was likely go down, quickly grabbed his or her mobile device and recorded the incident. From this video, which went viral on social media today, 24th of May, 2022, it is clear to see that the civilian provoked such a response from the police officer by attacking him first.

Of course, we don’t know what happened before that, but from the looks of things, the civilian might have been resisting arrest.

Team Guyana, South America strongly advises all citizens to offer maximum cooperation to law-enforcement officers at all time so as to maintain law and order, and to report all incidents of abuses using the right channel and prescribed modus operandi.