Don’t hold your breath

By Cheryl Springer

Women, women’s organizations and anti-violence advocates may just have felt a sliver of hope three weeks ago, when the government launched its much-touted national policy on domestic violence, titled ‘Break the Cycle – Take Control.’ Perhaps not. If any of them had held their breaths believing that there would have been some change in the short term, by now they would have self-asphyxiated. Not me though, I exhaled.

In fact, it was more like a ‘gimme a break’ snort of incredulity. After 13 years in the news media, as much as you do not want to, you become jaded where these things are concerned. And in the light of recent events, who can blame me?

Last Monday, a woman’s body was found in the charred ruins that were once her home. She had either been injured and then burned alive or murdered and cremated by her reputed husband, who subsequently ingested a poisonous substance and is now dead.

On Saturday last, a policewoman, no less, was stabbed in the head by her abusive former partner, who had been stalking her. She was hospitalized as a result. So too was another female officer, who was chopped by her reputed husband on June 20. This man too had ingested a poisonous substance and died, according to a police press release on the incident, which had been issued the following day.

And in the same week that the government launched the policy, a gold miner appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of his former reputed wife and was remanded to prison.

Two of these incidents occurred in Bartica and the other two in Berbice. Coincidence? There are no statistics to uphold this statement, but even a cursory glance at the news for the first six months of this year would reveal that as a county, Berbice is unmatched when it comes to incidents of partner violence and male on female crime – assault, robbery, rape, murder. Bartica is lower down on the scale, but perhaps that is because there is underreporting with regard to the incidents of assault or, maybe, negligence on the part of law enforcement officers. Who knows?

What is known is that lack of immediate action has already rendered the national policy another useless bit of paper. Will it go the way of the Domestic Violence Act; underused with its provisions scarcely known? Go figure.

In two of the instances mentioned above, reports had been made to the police just prior to the physical, and in one instance deadly, assaults. In the first, according to this newspaper’s report, the Bartica police had advised Cynthia Andrews, the now dead woman, to go home and “make up” with the man, from whom she had already parted. She took their advice and it was quite possibly the last thing she ever did.

In the second case, the woman, a police corporal was with her brother when she noticed the man, from whom she had separated, stalking her. She, too, made a report to the police. One would assume that they would have taken a report from one of their own seriously. Apparently not. When this newspaper heard that the policewoman had been stabbed and hospitalized and rang the New Amsterdam Police Station for a comment, the reporter was told that the incident was “just something minor between the woman and the man.”

News that the police would treat a report from one of their own in such a cavalier fashion is sure to imbue much confidence in other battered women, don’t you think?

At the launching of the national policy, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee in whose purview the Guyana Police Force falls publicly chided its members for the many weaknesses in the system, which have seen partner violence/murder escalating over the past few years. He had declared “categorical support” for the policy and pledged to, “get the Guyana Police Force working harder and acting more aggressively in this area.” In his speech too, which this newspaper’s editorial column dismissed as empty rhetoric, he declared that the reluctance often shown by the police with respect to taking reports on domestic violence and following up on cases, points to the fact that “they [police] are products of a society that condones violence.” He said too that it was time for the police to get serious and for the society, particularly men, to do their bit in stamping out all forms of violence.

Pure hot air from the minister as it is obvious that members of the police force either did not hear him, or chose to ignore what he said. Why should they pay heed anyhow? It is not as if these things were not said before by persons in authority, who then turn around and do nothing to make sure that the police do their jobs as they ought to. There was no directive given to commanding officers in the various districts to discipline or charge any police officer who ignores a report of domestic/partner violence or puts a woman’s life in danger by telling her to go home and make up with a man who batters her.

I am certain that if the police even bother to respond to this criticism of the way they operate, we will hear the usual excuse: they are short of resources. They will blow this trumpet even louder now, given that they are supposed to be chasing down not one, but two notorious murderers. But then they are not even doing this well.

One would hope though, once they recover and return to work that the two policewomen who have suffered as a result of partner violence would become proactive in using the law to stamp out this scourge. And that they would encourage more participation in this from their peers, rather than being infected by the general malaise that seems to be endemic among police officers. But I won’t hold my breath.