In the words of Caribbean musician Buju Banton, “Those who can afford to run will run, but what about those who can’t…”
We stand resolute and say that Quindon Bacchus’ attempt to “run” from the barbaric, authoritarian, extra-judicial, unjust, and inequitable system was met with six shots. It is these piercing bullets and a broken system that ignores the cries of our young people that is personal.
A son of the soil, forebearer of the indomitable will of our forefathers was cut down in the prime of his youth. Quindon Bacchus, age 25 of Cleave Street, Market Road, Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara, was shot on Friday, June 10, 2022, by identified agents of the Guyana Police Force’s (GPF) Special Branch.
Initial reports from the GPF acknowledged the incident. The police informed that Bacchus was shot while in hot pursuit by ranks with whom he had engaged in gunfire exchanges. Early witness recollection triggered major discrepancies in the report of the GPF prompting an immediate variation of the incident by the GPF.
The early witness accounts of what transpired on the afternoon of June 10, 2022, were corroborated by three (3) videos released by a private resident. Efforts by the family to acquire further video evidence from a local Chinese Supermarket were suppressed by an order directed to the proprietor from the Police to not disclose the video since an active police investigation is happening.
The relatives of Deputy Commissioner of Police (ag), Calvin Brutus, have refused to release video evidence to the public from a home immediately across from where the incident transpired. While the Police informed that the only eyewitness remains in police custody. Separate video evidence revealed that school children and residents were caught in the police’s indiscriminate shootings.
In the final analysis, Bacchus laid dead on his face, with an overwhelming number of shots to his back. Six in total by physical examination of his body.
The Haslington-Grove communities were once vibrant metropolis. Village economies are informed by ham processing centers and factories ranging from lemonade, cocoa, salted and peanut butter, biscuits, and bread factories, a credit union bank, and its wind power generation system. These were gradually dismantled by successive policies that left these communities in the post-independence era.
The President’s College which once provided jobs for hundreds of residents is now underfunded. Sports and recreational facilities remain in an abysmal state with zero intervention from policymakers.
Only recently, Bacchus together with other youths was engaged in organizing the Golden Grove Inter-Block football tournament. The aim of the tournament was aimed at Unity and providing a safe space for youths of the East Coast communities. The tournament came to a halt due to lack of funding to repair broken lights in the Golden Grove Community Centre Ground.
While Oil and Gas training schools and recruitment drives are taken to communities in Regions 3, 5 and 6, the Haslington-Grove communities of Anns Grove/Two Friends, Low Land, Nootenzuil/Belfield, Victoria, Craig Milne, Nabaclis, Golden Grove and Haslington remains neglected.
We believe that the immediate needs of these Haslington-Grove communities can only be met when there is social dialogue between the people and the institutions of the State, inclusionary participation in decision-making that affects our lives, the creation of an enabling environment for the growth and development of vibrant macro-business that are capable of responding to the employment needs of these communities.
Today our hearts are torn. When the basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are cut short under circumstances of neglect, inequitable treatment, extra-judicial, authoritarianism, economic and social isolation, and infringement of the rules of the law of engagement and social dialogue, six shots must become personal.
-END-
Sig.: Kalabash Diaspora of Haslington-Grove
Co-sign.: Elders of the Haslington-Grove Communities.
More, In The Ring.
