Submitted by Mark Jacobs (Voice of Guyana)

The Takatu Bridge opening last September saw Guyanese and Brazilians celebrating but for different reasons. It signalled that Guyana was finally on its way in fulfilling its ‘continental destiny.’ Brazil on the other hand is happy to have finally opened up access to the Atlantic and Caribbean for it’s landlocked territories.

Brazil has tremendous resources to assist Guyana in achieving our highest potentials. There are but few of our imports that cannot be fulfilled by Brazilian industries. With all that said, there’s another side to Brazil many refuse to acknowledge much less discuss. And I speak of the plight of the 90 plus million Afro-Brazilians.

We need not discuss how these Africans got to Brazil, but to understand
the magnitude, it’s four times larger than the African American population. Nigeria is the only country in the world with more Africans than Brazil. (I prefer the term African as opposed to Black since Africa indicates a place of origin) I point these things out because I visited Brazil last year and became a victim of police harassment and racial profiling less than twenty four hours after arriving in Boa Vista.

I was in a tourist zone when three City Police (Guardia Municipal)demanded that I turn around and put my hands up. I objected as is my right. I had done nothing but take photos of the Rio Branco. These police weren’t having any of it and forced me around and began aggressively patting me down and kicking my legs apart. My passport was checked out so they had nothing on me there as I had legally entered Brazil. In the end it may have been my Guyana passport that saved me as Afro-Brazilians are routinely rounded up beaten, killed, framed and imprisoned. The current and historical record speaks to this.

One policeman had dried weed and/or a bush of some sort in a piece of paper. He claimed it was marijuana belonging to me and he happened to have found it under some bushes some distance away. (I do not smoke anything) I am convinced they were trying to frame me by placing something on my person. I resisted their illegal actions and they eventually backed off.

They were cocky enough to let me photograph them and their vehicle, including a clear image of the policeman holding the said weed/bush. In English one said ‘welcome to Brazil’ and went on to explain that this is how things are done in Brazil. I assumed he meant in reference to people looking like me. It is significant that all these Policemen were all of European extraction.

I immediately left Boa Vista but returned a week later to file a complaint. I went to Roraima Bureau of Tourism and spoke to a very helpful man named Shigaki. He expressed his disgust and arranged for a driver and vehicle to take me to the Federal Police office across town. I spoke to several Federal Police officers who advised me that I should file a complaint with Internal Affairs of the City Police. However, after much discussion they felt my life could be endangered if I stayed in Boa Vista. They advised me to file a civil rights complaint against the police with the Public Defence office.

A Federal officer drove me on his lunch break to the Public Defence office and assisted in translating and getting my complaint filed. A battery of officers took my statement and along with the pictures an investigation has been launched. Before leaving they gave me a copy of the complaint which I still have. Unfortunately for me there was no Guyana Consulate in Boa Vista to assist me. Had it not been for the Brazilians, I would’ve been forced to leave and possible forget about what happened. When I returned to Guyana I contacted the Brazilian embassy to lodge a complaint and to date I’ve not heard anything back.

This is one side of Brazil I’ve never heard discussed in Guyana. As we rush to embrace our neighbor, it would do us good to pause and take a careful look at these unresolved issues in Brazil. Uncomfortable though they may be, they will have a huge impact on our future relations.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay visited Brazil the same month I was there and wrote this at the conclusion of her visit:

“Brazil has an impressive array of laws and policies, designed to promote human rights and improve the socio-economic situation. But they are not being properly implemented … indigenous people and Afro-Brazilians in particular are facing serious discrimination, injustice and violence.”

“There are very few Afro-Brazilians in positions of authority. This was particularly striking in the country’s northern Bahia state, where three-quarters of the population are Afro-Brazilian…”

“The main victims of the violence plaguing Brazil’s urban areas are Afro-Brazilians, and one of the main causes of their deaths is the use of excessive force by law enforcement officials, and rogue militias, as well
as by the gangsters and drug dealers.” – Source Huffington Post:

Mr. Editor while I condemn the state sponsored violence perpetuated against Afro-Brazilians, I can’t help but reflect on my experiences at home. I’ve been the victimized and brutalized by agents of the state right here in my own country before and after my recent encounter in Brazil. I would like to highlight two of my encounters with law enforcement agents in Guyana. And when I say law enforcement, I use the term quite loosely because as I will describe, in these incidents the officers were doing everything but enforcing laws.

Before going further, I would like to make it make it crystal clear that I have never been involved in any criminal enterprise, activity or conspiracy anywhere in the world. The only time I was locked up was in the United States for failing to pay a $75 traffic offense. (I think we’re all familiar with the American so.called justice system so that needs no further elaboration) I state these things because many amongst us still falsely believe that you must have done something wrong for the police to come after you.

On December 23, 2009 I was assaulted, tackled to the ground and arrested by Georgetown City Constabulary agents at the Brickdam entrance of Stabroek Market as Guyanese were caught up in Christmas shopping frenzy. I sustained cuts and bruises to elbows, my knees and rib cage. My body was in pain for about a week from various hits and blows. Both wrists were sprained and injured from being roughed up and hand cuffed. My left wrist was cut by the hand cuffs that were deliberately tightened. My dashiki (a gift my father received from relatives in Ghana and handed down to me) was ripped apart and pulled off me. My cell phone no longer works and the keypad is missing.

No one identified themselves to me and as of today, 30 January, 2010, I
still have no idea why I was arrested. I was taken to the City Constabulary outpost next to the Fire Station where multiple officers threatened to beat me. I informed the officers that if they were going to beat me, please make sure I was dead when the beating was over. The threats continued but the beating never commenced. It was announced by a number of officers that I was on cocaine. Why else would I resist their illegalities?

I would learn later that the officers had closed the door and boarded up the entrance to the building as a curious crowd had gathered. A statement (of charges I suppose) was drawn up by a team of officers with me sitting handcuffed in the back of the room. No one asked me any questions or said anything to me. The only time anyone spoke to me was to issue me threats of violence. These are just some of the reasons I use the term law enforcement loosely.

I was placed in a pick-up truck and driven to Brickdam Police Station where to my utter surprise a female officer refused to open the gate. I heard her scream ‘wuh eh do? Wuh yall bring he hey fuh?’ I couldn’t hear the muffled reply but she screamed back ‘doan bring he hey.’ She never opened the gate. I assumed she remembered well the torture of the 14 year-old boy at Leonora Police Station and was reacting cautiously less she be implicated in criminal wrong doings.

The vehicle then drove to City Hall where entrance was again refused. Constabulary Officers there wanted to know what I was being brought in for. No one seemed to have a proper answer and the gate remain closed. The vehicle then drove to the City Constabulary outpost on Regents St. Once again I was threatened with more violence. One female officer pulled out what looked like a PVC pipe from under the front desk and threatened to beat me. ‘Move leh me beat he’ was her cry. To which I sang my own tune. In no uncertain terms I told the officer if she was going to beat me, make sure I was dead when the beating concluded. The promised beating never came. I was dragged to the back of the building and thrown into a cell. While there I saw too many violations to detail here.

In brief these are some of the illegal, inhumane and unsanitary conditions under which the City Constabulary houses those they’ve arrested (they call them prisoners). Against one wall a rectangular Styrofoam box on the floor was overflowing with human faeces. Opposite this was three pieces of cardboard someone used as a bed on the damp concrete floor. Against the back wall was a large pile of human faeces mixed with garbage. The stench of urine was very high. As a humanitarian gesture someone punched a small hole in the back wall where the urine seem to drain out. Add in an assortment of insects and critters and I’ve just described the contents of my cell.

Mr. Editor these conditions violate every human and civil right on the planet and make a mockery of the Guyana Constitution. I occasionally hear loud cries of outrage by Guyanese officials and laymen over the treatment our countrymen in some far flung land. Barbados comes to mind. I heard of Guyanese being detained on a bench at the airport, never
have I heard of my countrymen being placed in cells full of human excrement. This happens in Guyana everyday!

When I think of the treatment of Guyanese in Guyana I’m left with but one conclusion. When it comes to rank hypocrisy, Guyana has few equals the world over. That we do not hang our heads in shame is a matter for the psychologists. Another atrocity too outrageous to detail on these pages also occurred at the Bourda Outpost. I will leave it up to the readers’ imagination to fill in the blanks. All I’ll say is two female officers came to my cell, rattling my cage as you would when tormenting an animal, and one made a sexual proposal of sorts using very coarse language. Somewhere close to midnight I was handcuffed and driven back to Georgetown City Hall. Here I learned that I was told I would be granted my freedom in return for $8000 bail. Contrary to what the Georgetown City Constabulary thinks, I know I was born free.

A court appearance was set for December 28, however, I refused to sign the paper as no one found it necessary to explain to me what I was being bailed for. Which as it turns out is a common practice in Guyana. My refusal caused some measure of confusion, especially with the bigger heads. I then drew a line across the signature block which proved sufficient enough for me to be released.

The next day the money was returned to my brother who was told that the
matter was closed. $2000 of the $8000 remains with a Senior Officer at
Georgetown City Hall. The man said he needed it to ‘buy two Guinness’ The second incident occurred at the Kashif & Shanghai finals on January 1, 2010. At the entrance a man in plain clothes said he wanted to search me. I asked him under what grounds was he doing this. He said they everyone entering had to be searched. I then said, ‘ok go ahead and search me.’ A policeman in brown uniform standing no more than three feet away observed me being searched then demanded that another man search me again.

I immediately objected. I said, ‘I’ve already been searched once. You saw
me being searched. Why do you want to search me again?’ The most the man in brown could come up with was ‘ah she search he again.’ (I would later learn that all these men are officers in the Guyana Police Force) The second man who was ordered to search me then went on to make threats about what he could do to me if I did not confirm. I then said, ‘this is f***ing harassment. There are real criminals in this country you
people need to deal with, but I guess you can’t.’ This seemed to have hit a raw nerve with all concerned. I was immediately informed by the man in brown that I had violated the laws of Guyana by cussing. This comes from a man who’s overseeing the violation of my human and constitutional rights, which he apparently has no problem with. Cussing on the other hand, is matter that galvanizes his interest. He ordered his men to take me to the stadium outpost, search me and arrest me. I was released, after the mandatory threats of violence and verbal abuse in time to see and listen to King Pele.

Mr. Editor when I crossed the Takatu Bridge I understood that I was entering a foreign country with its own set of peculiarities. I stand strong in condemning the attacks and other violations against Afro-Brazilians and all other Brazilians; however, in life sometimes we are faced with cruel ironies. As a Guyanese I can seek and get redress for the crimes committed against me in Brazil. In Guyana on the other hand, the avenues are littered with obstacles and the streets are without lights. Darkness and uncertainty prevails.

As I ponder our sad state of affairs, our very own poet laureate Martin Carter comes to mind: “This is the dark time, my love,/It is the season of
oppression, dark metal, and tears.” I spent $6500 buying a new phone and wear a brace on my wrist someone bought overseas. I may need a brace on my right wrist soon. My dashiki cannot be repaired and even if it could’ve, who bears the cost? Who bears the cost of replacing it? If I could find one similar that is. And I’ve not yet addressed the time lost and mental anguish of having to fight daily for what I consider my primary right – my right to be free.

I voluntarily returned to Guyana after living overseas for almost two decades. If I have no rights here, I would like the relevant authorities to make it known. With this information, I and others who’ve been similarly
victimized can plot our course forward. Writing the decision for Dred Scott v Sandford in 1857, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Taney stated the following as it related to African Americans: “[they are] beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” African Americans had to wait another 110 years before they were finally granted citizenship rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Is there a waiting period for freedom, justice and equality in Guyana?

Mr. Editor the historical record will show that in 2009 members of various law enforcement agencies in Guyana have been responsible for rape, armed robbery, assault, shootings, stabbings, hit and run to name a few. In ‘The bad egg problem’, Stabroek News Editorial, January 26, 2010, the president of Guyana is quoted admitting that 90 members of the Guyana Police Force are presently facing criminal charges. These are the cases that have been reported and made it past all the preliminary hurdles. I have no grievance with these individuals as they themselves are victims of a system they seem incapable on understanding so far. However, I must remind them of three things: 1) their ignorance of the law does not grant them license to violate my rights; 2) there are higher laws beyond the borders of Guyana that protect my rights; and 3) the courts of Guyana do not have final jurisdiction over human, civil and criminal abuses committed in Guyana.

In closing, it’s only fitting that I quote a champion for freedom, justice and equality, Frederick Douglas writing after the Dred Scott Decision: ‘The highest authority has spoken. The voice of the Supreme Court has gone out over the troubled waves of the National Conscience. But my hopes were never brighter than now. I have no fear that the National Conscience will be put to sleep by such an open, glaring, and scandalous issue of lies.’