“Thirty six years in an organization is not easy. This is the only job I’ve done in my life. Being a policeman I would have had lots of experiences from dealing with people, different issues. And you would know there is no substitute for experience.”
By Dale Andrews
If anyone was destined to be a policeman, it was Courtney Ramsey. He grew up around police
Senior Supt. Courtney Ramsey
and spent the greater part of his life being a policeman, and now that he has reached the climax of a rewarding career, he can look back with satisfaction on a job well done.
Unlike so many other cops, he is one of the few policemen who could put their hands up and boast that they were not compromised. He can truly say that he came through the ranks—serving from Constable all the way to Senior Superintendent of Police.
SOUND BACKGROUND AND A LASTING IMPRESSION
Born in Mahaicony, Ramsey grew up in Mahaica where his father worked at a gatekeeper for the train company. His education saw him attend Supply and Helena Primary Schools, and Bygeval Secondary School in Mahaica, which provided him with the sound background that served him so well as a member of the Guyana Police Force.
His story of how he became a policeman is interesting.
Ramsey grew up next to the police station at Mahaica – just a trench separated his home from the station – and it was natural that the first thing he saw when he looked outside was the blue and white of the police station with its ranks milling about the compound.
It was bound to leave an impression on a young mind.
Sergeant Ramsey (seated) with two constables during his stint at Linden.
“Every Saturday morning in those days, the Sergeant used to hold what you call a drill parade, drilling the police ranks in the compound…and as little boys and girls, we used to sit down and look at the old Sergeants,” Ramsey said.
Such an impression was left on him that today he could recall with ease the names of some of the sergeants who captivated him as a young man.
There were Sergeants Simon, Bobb and Sealey who served in the late 1960s-early 1970s.
Ramsey’s interaction with the police at that time was not only confined to watching them drill; he would venture over to the station where he would come into direct contact with the ranks.
“You know as little boys the policemen would call us and send us to do an errand. You used to use their bicycle…we would get to ride,” Ramsey recalled.
But those were not the only factors that influenced his decision to become a lawman; he came from a disciplined home—his mother, a housewife, was a strict disciplinarian and his father, a gateman of the Transport Department, was no different.
And besides, his brother had already enlisted in the force.
So it was not surprising that after completing his GCE O’ Levels, Ramsey, who “limed for a year”, was taken by his father to join the Police Force in April 1979.
The dapper Mr. Ramsey
“my father, realizing that the devil finds work for idle hands, took me down to Georgetown and we went to headquarters and one of his countrymen, he was Assistant Commissioner, Mr Harold Martin, he took me there to him and right away he sent us to the training college. I wrote the exams and I was successful,” Ramsey recalled.
At the end of July that year, he received a call from the Police Force inviting him to be sworn as new police recruits. He was among 29 such young men and women.
His instructor then was Winston Felix, a former Commissioner of Police, who is now the Minister of Citizenship.
It was easy for the young Ramsey, since Felix was one of the policemen he had come to know at Mahaica, one whom he had done errands for.
“I don’t think that there was any policeman who was stationed at Mahaica who didn’t know the Ramsey family,” he stated.
At the time Ramsey did not see himself being a policeman for the rest of his working life, since he was not focused on a career in law enforcement.
But the police bug soon bit him and he remained in the Force up to this day.
After nine months of training, the young Courtney Ramsey was sent to one of the beat
In ceremonial uniform
duty centres on Water Street, where he spent four months on the beat.
In his fifth month as a policeman, Ramsey was transferred to the East Coast of Demerara.
It was more like coming home for Ramsey, because his commander there was one of the very sergeants he used to admire as a youngster growing up at Mahaica, Mr John Sealey.
“I was close to home and he (commander) told me ‘young Ramsey, I’m gonna send you close to home where you can ride to go to work’ and I was transferred to Cane Grove where I spent two months.”
That was way back in 1981.
THE LINDEN DAYS
His rendezvous with the East Coast did not last long though, for he was transferred to the mining town of Linden where he would spend most of his police career. He ended up spending 12 years straight there and it was there his career began to take off.
“When I went there I was a constable and I left there as a Sergeant.”
In January 1985 he got his first promotion to corporal which was done on-the-spot by the then Commissioner Lloyd Barker who was going into retirement. Two years later he attained the rank of Sergeant.
It was also in Linden that he started his own family.
Enjoying retirement with his long-time partner, Racquel
“Yeah, I got my son there, he’s abroad now.”
Being a policeman who is stationed in one district for that period of time, one would definitely build good relationships with the citizenry. Ramsey was no exception.
“It is one of the places I’ve always said I found working there very easy. It was good working in Linden. I didn’t want to go in the first place because I was a little country boy, I didn’t know anything about cooking, washing clothes and pressing clothes…but I had to learn everything,” Ramsey recounted.
What made it a bit easier for him was that he met a few of his ‘countrymen’ there.
“It was in Linden that I learnt most of my policing, operating general duties,” he said.
At that time there were a lot of ‘kick-down-the-door’ bandits and Ramsey, along with Neville Grey and Aubrey Lawson, under the command of Inspector Loncke, went out on foot in the area to curtail criminal activities.
“We used to walk in all the back streets. Inspector Loncke used to tell us plain that ‘tief man nah walk in light’. I don’t think that I could add up the mileage we walked under Inspector Loncke,” Ramsey explained.
Apart from Linden itself, Ramsey served at Kwakwani and was the first subordinate officer at the newly opened Mabura Outpost in 1987. He left that district in 1994 and went to Mahdia.
According to Ramsey, the constant movements did not affect him much since he had conditioned his mind to keep moving.
“Whenever they say transfer, I start packing. I don’t go and ask anybody anything, I just pack my bag and I keep going,” he said.
From Mahdia, where he reached the rank of inspector, Ramsey was transferred to the office of the Commissioner of Police and then to the Criminal Investigations Department in 1996.
The transition from a general duty policeman to the Criminal Investigations Department was smooth for Ramsey, except for the increased volume of work. But according to Ramsey, it called for a lot of discipline and dedication.
“It’s not the normal shift work where you sign off at a particular time…you might be just about to leave and somebody reports a crime, you have to stay and deal with it.”
There was a time when the CID was the elite section of the Police Force, but Ramsey believes that that is not so now.
“Years ago when you hear you’re going to the CID, it was prestige, you glad to go…now the youngsters are running from the writing. It is difficult to get people to go CID now, very difficult. When you in CID, you were a big boy, not now,” Ramsey stated.
He joined the officer ranks officially in 2002 (Assistant Superintendent) and this was followed by promotion to Deputy Superintendent in 2005. He became a Superintendent in 2009 and then a Senior Superintendent in 2011.
He said that the only dissatisfaction in his career as a policeman was not attaining the rank of Assistant Commissioner.
“I’m not happy, because I felt that I should have been an Assistant Commissioner, the last promotion in January. I was a bit disgruntled when the promotions came out…and not only me; there are a number of other senior officers who felt the same way, I can tell you,” Ramsey said.
The vexing issue of promotion is one in which Ramsey bared his soul.
“These things have a lot to do with politics and who know who, and who could go to the Service Commission Chairman, go here and go there and talk to people. I didn’t do that, I had no intentions of doing that. I think a man should be promoted on merit and that is me. And that is the only thing that I’m leaving the force not happy with,” the retiring Senior Superintendent declared.
He said that he was sidelined on a number of occasions and that caused him to approach the then Commissioner Leroy Brumell to be reverted back to uniform in 2012.
“I told him plain, ‘skipper I don’t want to remain in CID’ and I gave him the reasons why. I was being overlooked and that is how I came here as Commander for ‘F’ Division. I had no intention of going to anybody, I had no intention of going to no politician like what some of my colleagues did,” Ramsey stated.
INDELIBLE MARKS
But it was in the CID that events left the most indelible marks in his memory.
There were two incidents; the Bartica Massacre and the Lindo Creek slaughter.
“I would always remember those two incidents throughout my lifetime.”
He was the detective officer in the division for both incidents, and to this day he cannot erase the graphic memories.
He recalled the Bartica Massacre. That night he was at home watching the Stanford 20/20 finals when he received a telephone call telling him that the Bartica Station was under attack. Through the telephone he could hear the gunshots.
Ramsey said that he immediately contacted the then Crime Chief, Seelall Persaud, and told him what was related to him. A few minutes later he was instructed to travel to the location. That was around 10pm and Ramsey along with other police detectives were transported by aircraft to Baganara and then by boat to Bartica.
“The first thing when we arrived at the Bartica Ferry Stelling was seeing all those bodies lying there with bullet wounds. It touched me, because it was the first time as a detective over the years and as a policeman too, that I would have seen so many dead persons at a crime scene, and that was only the stelling. And when we got to the station, I saw three of my colleagues…then we went down to Banks DIH and we saw another man there…and the further down the road we saw another man, and I think that the other two were at the Bartica Mortuary.”
It was not an easy sight for the seasoned policeman who did not sleep until the following night. The work was taxing, gathering statements and all.
With regards to Lindo Creek, he recalled it was a Saturday afternoon when he received a call from the then Police Public Relations Officer John Sauers, who asked if he had heard what had taken place.
Ramsey was familiar with the location since he had worked in the Kwakwani District in his earlier years as a policeman. Again he contacted the Crime Chief and again he was instructed to prepare to be flown in to the area.
When Ramsey and his team eventually got to the area they were shocked to find a burnt out camp where the charred remains of human beings were piled on top of one another.
“That site was even more gruesome than the one at Bartica, seeing all those bodies packed together. Just flesh and bones, you can’t recognise anybody…piece of bone here and pieces of flesh there and so on. It wasn’t easy,” Ramsey recalled.
SATISFYING PRAISE
For Ramsey, some of the positives he derived from his job is the praise he got from his colleagues every time he left them to go on a transfer.
“They would tell you, ‘sir, I’ve enjoyed working with you because of your knowledge, sharing experiences and teaching us the job’. I think I would have left a legacy along that line. Everywhere I worked, you ask the ranks and they will tell you the same thing.”
FAMILY SUPPORT AND PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
He always had the support of his family throughout his career, including his mother who is now deceased. His immediate family, he said, was comfortable with his constant movements…at least they understood, although they never went with him. For them, a few weekend visits to the location he was stationed was enough.
“After a time women get to understand, and of course the person I’m living with now is a policewoman and she understood the nature of the police and the things that go with the job,” Ramsey reflected.
On October 31 this year, Ramsey would have completed 36 years two months of service, and he would gladly do it again if he had the chance to.
“Thirty six years in an organization is not easy. This is the only job I’ve done in my life. Being a policeman I would have had lots of experiences from dealing with people, different issues. And you would know there is no substitute for experience,” Ramsey stated.
He has this word of advice for persons already in the Force as well potential recruits. “This job is a rewarding career, once you put your mind to it.”
He recalled working with some “great” policemen in his younger years. Apart from Winston Loncke who was Ramsey’s role model, there were Walter Gravesande, Cecil Kilkenny, Michael Somersall and the late Lancelot Lawrence
“Inspector Loncke used to always tell you, ‘you can’t get retrenched, the only way you could lose this job is if you do stupidness and you get knock off….only death or retirement can take this work from you’. Be fair to people, whether they are in the force or a civilian,” Ramsey said. “Be honest in whatever you do.”