Pattern Of Domestic Violence By Jamaican Men…

From Contributor:
Minister Joan Gumbs
You may respond to Minister Gumbs at ministergumbs@​howyalivinnow.​org or leave her a response in the com­ments sec­tion below.

I n what has become a pat­tern of Jamaican men killing their wives and some­times tak­ing their own, the lat­est news of a Detective Corporal who kills his wife for “tor­ment­ing” his life is par­tic­u­lar­ly unset­tling. Not only because of the strange­ness of the account, but also the insen­si­tiv­i­ty of the media and pun­dits for­ward­ing and replay­ing the hus­band’s con­fes­sion on social media. According to var­i­ous news sources, the offi­cer was hav­ing “issues” with his wife, and could­n’t tek it nuh more. But instead of walk­ing away, he chose to shoot her at their Tower Isle home in the parish of St. Mary. 

My grand­moth­er always said there are three sides to every sto­ry, and dead man tells no tales. So, Jennifer Hardy Lawrence is not around to tell her side of the sto­ry. how­ev­er, my take on the whole bizarre affair is not to place blame at the feet of this woman. She may not be inno­cent. She may have done all that the media is report­ing she has done (based on the hus­band’s social media con­fes­sion). But it sad­dens me to hear my own gen­der speak­ing ill of the dead – espe­cial­ly one of our own. “She had it com­ing” and “mi nuh sor­ry fi har,“are not appro­pri­ate respons­es to this inci­dent. In a male-dom­i­nat­ed soci­ety where news of behead­ing and female muti­la­tions are not uncom­mon, the last thing a woman needs is for her sis­ters to turn on her and defend her killer. The hus­band is not the vic­tim here – regard­less of what twist and turn the sto­ry takes. We don’t know what took place on that fate­ful Tuesday morn­ing because we weren’t there. Mrs Lawrence is not around to tell us, and we cer­tain­ly can­not take her hus­band’s account of events as gospel. What we do know is that Kirk Lawrence was a police offi­cer who has to work every day under extreme pres­sure in high-volatile com­mu­ni­ties. If the cor­po­ral kills his wife for tor­ment­ing his life, then we have to assume he, him­self, was under severe stress. 

PTSD is not a con­di­tion expe­ri­enced only by our sol­diers when they go to war. It is very real among our local police offi­cers. One would have to be in the sit­u­a­tion to tru­ly under­stand what it feels like to go into a com­mu­ni­ty where gun­men can hide out in the most inno­cent of places. You are going in blind. The “friend­lies”, i.e. the shop­keep­er, house­wife, youth on the cor­ner play­ing domi­noes, et al, can either be gun­men and women, or are enablers for these crim­i­nals. Let’s not fool our­selves. These mur­der­ers, rapists, rob­bers, et al have moth­ers, sis­ters, daugh­ters, wives, and girl­friends. And the truth is, many times the police have no idea who is whom. They see a per­son reach­ing into his or her pock­et, they don’t know if a gun or bub­blegum will emerge. Do you have any idea how stress­ful that can be? I don’t know if reg­u­lar men­tal check­ups are done for the men in red. But if not, it is time that we start doing as much for them as the men in green. 

Based on the voice note mes­sage he alleged­ly left behind, he did not plan to “face judg­ment” for his crime, sug­gest­ing a mur­der-sui­cide attempt. However, his col­leagues got to the house before he could make his chil­dren orphans, and he is now in cus­tody. In the USA and UK (from whom we adopt many poli­cies and pro­ce­dures) the police offi­cers under­go peri­od­ic psych eval­u­a­tions. After an inci­dent, they are relieved of their duties until they have been cleared by a psy­chi­a­trist. This needs to be imple­ment­ed in JA. There are too many accounts of killings by our police offi­cers, who have sworn to pro­tect our cit­i­zens, not kill them – even if they are mar­ried to them! Sincere prayers and con­do­lences to the bereaved of this woman, espe­cial­ly the chil­dren who will have to spend the rest of their lives deal­ing with the knowl­edge that their father killed their moth­er. This is a time to show sup­port, not play the blame game. HYLN? What is your take on this sto­ry? Do you believe the hus­band? Do you believe he could have walked away even if the wife was guilty of all the alle­ga­tions? What about the chil­dren? Let us know what you’re think­ing in the com­ments box below.