IT is true that there have been many initiatives in the form of training and seminars for members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF), specifically for educating and sensitising the latter about the seriousness of domestic violence, and its effects on families, the community, and the country as a whole.
This was because of the insensitivity of ranks that were known to display a marked thoughtlessness, and cavalier demeanour to victims who would go to police precincts to report threats/abuses to their persons.

Undoubtedly, those engagements would have caused an appreciative improvement in the GPF’s interactions with persons who reported instances of abuse. Not only were victims being listened to, and their complaints taken and investigated; but that charges were also being instituted against the abusers; and perpetrators began to suffer legal sanctions for a monstrous behaviour that is now a national scourge.
But such a more improved, enlightened approach by general law enforcement officers have not in any way put a halt to a monstrosity that continues to take the lives of women–brutally slaughtered. The latter, so aptly described because of the often uncontrolled fury of the attacks that exact the fatal wounds, often of multiple type, inflicted by the assailant.
It would seem that some GPF ranks are still of the view that domestic violence reports, particularly those in which the threat to kill is uttered, are to be ignored; and that such reports are basic and frivolous as a report of a lad pelting fruits off a tree.

The latest brutal murder of a young Corentyne woman, if the post-murder statements are true, points to missed opportunities to have the perpetrator arrested earlier, for threats to the victim’s person/physical abuse, even though neighbours would often inform arriving officers as to his presence in the home.

One can be certain that the Whim Police Station where the victim’s family is reported to have made several reports, has a Domestic Violence Manual, as all other police stations, and that at least one officer is present who can initiate guidance when such reports are made.

This latest death mirrors some earlier cases, where the failure of the GPF to act in a timely manner has resulted in many women meeting their tragic and untimely demise. But it brings to the fore, the question as to when must there be a response from the police, subsequent to a report of domestic violence.

We are not experts, but given the intensity and level of brutality that are usually meted out to women victims; on those who may have survived the attacks, and even those killed – we are of the view that every report ought to be promptly acted upon, with the abuser immediately arrested and taken into custody. There is a body of evidence that informs this conclusion, and it surrounds the threats to kill which are usually actualized by the assailant. In fact, it is an offence for anyone to threaten the life of another, irrespective of circumstance. But few of such persons threatened ever recourse to the law, in Guyana. In other jurisdictions, persons uttering such threats are often arrested, and sanctioned by the law.

But even without such threats, in the case of domestic violence, instant action must be taken, given its unpredictability.

Domestic violence is a many-headed beast that often commences with quarrels that are known to increase in both frequency and intensity, given its peculiar nature. And even though many times, based on accounts, that there may be quiet, it resumes often with more fury. It would seem that very few of these interpersonal incidents can be ever solved, given what may be its genesis–often accusations of infidelity. Also, it would seem, based on the record, that the victim is already marked for death, despite whatever solution-finding intervention there may have been.

It is because of these dynamics that we urge the increase use of social workers as part of every police station’s unit that had to deal with domestic violence cases. It is a position advocated a while ago in these columns, and is again suggested, especially in light of what has been an unprofessional approach in this case to which alluded.

Social workers are best suited to determine when threat levels are of a sufficient level that warrants unequivocal action, since this is perhaps one of the key functions of their daily practice. Of course, this type of professional, based on the nature of the case reported, may be able to determine the suitability of counselling, if the latter has such value for effecting a solving of whatever the cause(s) may be in the particular case. There can also be further recommendations for other types of interventions.

Law enforcement officers cannot be in citizens’ homes so as to prevent instances of spousal abuse. Such was never meant to be, and cannot be, because of its undoubted impossibility. However, we are of the further view and conclusion that once a victim makes a report, it must be acted upon professionally, given the high levels of this inhuman and cruel behaviour. Domestic violence is no longer a private domestic matter as was the backward understanding not so long ago, and which latter perception led to the deaths of so many women, and the maiming of those that survived the cruelty of its horrors. It is now everybody’s business; more so, the police who are expected to act without delay, when they receive reports.
The saving of lives must be paramount in every police action when dealing with cases of domestic violence, as well as ensuring that the abuser is brought before the courts, at the earliest.