7th of July, 2022. Guyana, South America. GSA News
Last updated: July 7, 2022 at 15:12 pmA disturbing video circulated today, 7th of July, 2022, on social media which shows a group of persons beating, verbally abusing, punishing, and humiliating a young Guyanese woman for allegedly stealing a number of chairs from a church. Several public figures and organizations have come forward to condemn the act which can be described as using a computer device to humiliate a person. Laws have recently been enacted to criminalize the use of a computer device to humiliate a person.
It is not clear from the video if the persons who were attacking the young woman were members of the church from which the chairs were stolen, however, they certainly were not exhibiting Christlike behavior. In the video, a woman can be seen hitting the suspect. Several persons were heard shouting expletives at her as she reached into the car to pick up a chair. A number of chairs were in the car, and the young woman was disdainfully told to fetch the chairs back into the church. Then, towards the end of the video, the persons were seen packing several chairs onto the head of the young woman and taunting her.
It is also not clear at this point if the allegations that were being hurled at the woman are true. However, the actors in the video seemed to have taken on the roles of judge, jury, and executioner – delivering vigilante justice to the suspect without giving her the chance to a fair trial.
The video went viral on social media as it was posted by several public figures and at least one media house. We will choose not to reproduce the video here due to its derogatory nature.
Team Guyana, South America calls on the Guyana Police Force to launch an investigation into this matter. The young woman in question should be given a fair chance to defend herself in court. If she is found guilty, she should be charged according to the laws of Guyana. At the same time, those who humiliated her on camera should also be brought before the courts and charged for physical and verbal assault, as well as for the offense described in the Cybercrime Act Section 2:14 which states that it is illegal to use a computer to publish or transmit computer data that is obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious or indecent with intent to humiliate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to another person.”
