For years the seriousness with which the police force handles reports of domestic violence has been questioned and criticized and even after sustained training and sensitization women continue to be abused and in mortal danger after making reports to stations.
The current consultations being conducted by the Ministry of Human Services on stamping out domestic violence is expected to address this issue via legislative reform.
The police frequently say that they respond to reports of domestic violence but that the victims always withdraw the complaint. “Women beg all the time, what are we to do?” one rank recently asked this newspaper. Had he asked this of Shreemattie Vivekanand, Babita Arjoon and other women who were cruelly abused and lived to tell about it, the answers would be similar: “help us”.
Within the past few months, the agonizing, personal stories of three women named made newspaper headlines. Vivekenand was hacked within inches of her life at her Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara home in a bloody episode that ended with her husband taking his life; Bibi Alli fled her Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara home with her son after a domestic squabble that culminated with the house going up in flames and Arjoon survived life-threatening stab wounds after she was attacked by her reputed husband at her Philadelphia, East Bank Essequibo home.
A vicious cycle of violence recurred in the lives of all three women, two of whom admittedly endured it for the sake of their children. But there were police reports, a long record of reports in Arjoon’s case – reports that amounted to nothing but an occurrence in a book at a station.
Reporting that they had been threatened, beaten and doused with hot oil resulted in a brief arrest in one case and largely indifference. Sometimes their cases were reduced to, “man and woman story” and other times, it was just simply ignored by officers. It was not until there was bloodshed that the police got active and started paying real attention to the women and their reports.
Are the police doing enough? A random check at a few stations in and out of the city reveals that some police officers need only look on the walls of the buildings they work in for guidelines on how to handle domestic violence reports.
Some of the instructions are in bold letters but based on reports, the police hardly seem to notice that they are even there.
Stabroek News sought an interview with the Guyana Police Force on its record in this area and was unsuccessful. The newspaper put the request in writing but Commissioner Henry Greene wrote to the newspaper on Friday only to acknowledge the letter requesting an interview.
Several months ago, the United States Embassy in Guyana held a workshop with the force on domestic violence. Police constables, subordinate officers, inspectors and others were trained by Vivian Huelgo, Director of the Community Law Project of Sanctuary For Families Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services, USA.
The Community Law Project assists victims of domestic violence who face unique barriers to justice and safety including immigrant populations and the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community through outreach, policy advocacy and legal representation.
Hueglo most recently led the early planning for the second New York City Family Justice Center under the auspices of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, where she coordinated efforts to open a centre providing information and services for domestic violence victims in one location including counselling, advocacy, meeting with a prosecutor, shelter and housing help, and civil legal information and representation.
No police
A traumatised and wounded Babita Arjoon told Stabroek News in a recent interview from her home that no matter how many times she turned up at the Parika police station complaining about her reputed husband’s abusive behaviour, there was never any officer to go back home with her. She said the officer at the station would take a report but after a while, he just stopped taking them.
“Parika never got police, I use to go steady or call them but nothing. I forget about them after a while because is like they don’t care,” Arjoon said. She said they only found the time to visit her home after she had been stabbed.
The woman explained that after more than three years of verbal and physical abuse she ordered her reputed husband out of the home. He left after initially refusing but returned often to torment her. She said there were numerous reports at the station after he threatened her and hit her but the police never reacted.
On the night of January 6, she had just finished a meal and had gone outside to throw out garbage when the man pounced on her. Arjoon recounted that he gripped her by the neck and pulled her into the home heading in the direction of the kitchen. She screamed to alert her children who witnessed the attack. Once in the kitchen the man grabbed a knife and started stabbing her.
“After the first stab in my side I started blocking the stabs because I feel like something puncture and he chop me up bad on my hands,” Arjoon said.
The man fled the home and boarded a minibus after the attack and has not been seen since. She said his family has visited her pleading with her not to press ahead with charges and has apologized on his behalf but she wants justice.
Though she once shared a home with him and they have a child together Arjoon said he almost killed her and needs to answer for his actions. The woman said her husband of many years died in an accident nearly eight years ago and in 2005, she decided to pursue a relationship with the man. She moved him into her home and they were living happily together for a few months until the man started abusing her in front of her children and hitting her.
Arjoon said she lived with the abuse until it became unbearable and she asked the man to leave. But according to her this enraged him and he left vowing to stay away and never did.
Brief arrest
Recuperating from her hospital bed at the Georgetown public hospital, a drastically different looking Shreemattie Vivekenand related years of verbal abuse from her husband Robert Kumar Jhagru who committed suicide shortly after hacking her repeatedly with a chopper in an incident, which almost rendered her an amputee.
Vivekenand said she ignored most of it but as the years progressed, it got worse. She endured it and lived in silence as it continued. Then one day it escalated.
She said the man doused her with hot oil but never got around to completing the task. The oil was so hot that when he grabbed the pan throw it at her, it ended up burning him. But that was the awakening moment that she needed and shortly after she was at the police station filing a report. The woman said relatives encouraged her to try and get past the things her husband did to her and to live good in spite of everything but after he tried to burn her, she woke up.
Her husband was arrested and later placed on bail. She said the matter did not go further though she wanted it to. After several interventions on the part of family and friends, it ended. As time passed, she was living in fear but not constant fear then came the ill-fated day when he decided to lash out at her for reporting him to the police.
She told this newspaper that Jhagru flew into a rage on the night in question and started throwing accusations at her.
She had just left the bedroom and was in a chair outside watching television, when the man started hacking away at her with a chopper. The couple’s 16-year-old daughter heard her mother’s screams and pleaded with her father to stop hurting her mother. Vivekanand’s sister later managed to kick open the door and several members of the community policing group also went to the woman’s aid.
She said it all happened so fast. A few months ago, she was living with a man who she had numerous differences with. She never t
hought he would try to murder her. She said he just became someone else that night and she never saw it coming.
Up in flames
Bibi Alli is somewhere out there hiding and perhaps hoping her husband never finds her. The Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara woman and mother of one fled her home on December 27 and has not been heard of or seen since. She managed to run out of her home during a bitter domestic squabble and stop a car that was passing. Her husband chased behind her but by the time he got outside, she was gone.
What happened next landed him before the courts but as neighbours reported, years of abuse never got him at the police station. The man set the house alight burning it to the ground. He was later arrested.
Neighbours close to Alli told this newspaper she endured much at the hands of her husband.
They said the woman had reported one or two incidents of abuse but nothing came of it. The man was reportedly unkind to Alli and she was often seen with bruises but neighbours called her a strong woman.
They said she endured it all and remained there. But on the day she fled it became too much to bear. The woman is said to be staying with relatives since she is homeless.
