I recently witnessed a horrifying incident at the Awen (8) Supermarket, which is located on the Railway Embankment in the community of Enmore. The supermarket is located opposite the Enmore Police Station. Even as I am about to share the experience, days later I am still shaken.
On Sunday, October 4, I stopped to make a purchase at the supermarket. Instead of exiting the vehicle, I asked my sister to make the purchase. A few seconds later, I noticed that she and other people were standing outside the supermarket looking in. Curious, I went to investigate and observed a group of women fighting.
As a regular customer of the supermarket, I recognized that among those in the melee were some of the workers and the lone Chinese woman who always operated the cash register. At the time she was kicking and cuffing a particular young woman who was being restrained by at least two other women. They were telling them to stop and another young woman rushed across to the police station twice, asking for an intervention.
The enraged Chinese woman was instructing one of the women to call ‘Chinee boy’ and they eventually let go of the young woman who was being pummeled. She, however, was still being restrained by the Chinese woman, who held on to her jersey tightly, preventing her from leaving. In the meantime, a small crowd of mostly men were standing in front of the supermarket and there were a few people, who I believe were customers, on the inside. No policeman, even though they were alerted twice, visited during that period.
I asked the restrained young woman what had happened, and she began to speak but seconds later a Chinese man approached and after being told something by the cashier, immediately slapped the young woman. The slap to her face was so powerful that the young woman fell to the ground and immediately the man started to kick her.
I was momentarily in shock and then I shouted to the man that he could not treat the woman in that manner. I turned to the many men looking on and I screamed at them to do something, but they stood unmoved observing a member of their community being brutalized.
I believed in my hysteria I touched the Chinese man and he turned to me with such rage in his eyes that I backed off as I believed he was about to hit me. Him turning away, however, allowed the young woman to get up from the ground and attempt to leave, but she was quickly followed by him and the cashier.
The man then picked up a small electrical fan and began to beat the woman with it. She picked up a cutlass to defend herself but could not use it as the cashier restrained her and the man continued to beat her.
Once again, I turned to the men standing around and I begged them to intervene as the police were once again called. I was hoarse by this time, but I approached a tall, strapping man who was in the supermarket and quietly begged him, to do something. He finally went and held the man, telling him, “you can’t do that”.
It was just about this time that a policeman —I assumed he was a policeman as he came out of the police station’s compound — walked in casually, while looking at his cellular phone and asked what had happened. No one answered. I told him, pointing to the now restrained Chinese man, that I saw that man beating a woman.
He took the man over to the police station even as the cashier angrily addressed me in a language that I could not understand.
I turned to the men, still standing around, and called them a bunch of cowards as they did not assist the young woman, who I am sure is a member of the Enmore community. One man sheepishly informed me, “we can’t get involved”. I angrily told him it was not about getting involved but they could not stand and watch a woman being assaulted and not at least restrain the perpetrator and take him to the police station
My words angered one of the men, who then aggressively approached me.
“Who you calling coward? Wah you do to help?” he questioned, and I informed him that I was a woman, and he was a man, and he could have done something.
“Is nah alyu woman want equal rights?” he responded.
If it were not such a serious situation I might have burst out laughing as I believe he had to be making a joke.
I continued to vent, and I informed the men that I was ashamed of the Enmore community because of what I had witnessed. I also informed them that I was going to expose their non-action and also the slow response of the police. This angered at least one police officer, who was off-duty at the time, and he challenged me from across the road questioning what I thought the police should have done. The fact they were pleaded with to intervene twice but waited for almost ten minutes to do so for him was normal. Well that was my conclusion.
A woman special constable then asked, “all who see wah happen come over and give a statement”. Of course everyone walked away and only two of the workers went over with the cashier and it as obvious they were in support of her.
One petite young woman, who had approached the police station twice begging the officers to intervene, came to me said, “Aunty this girl ain’t got nobody to support she. Come and give a statement.”
I went into the police station compound and the same off-duty officer – I knew he was off-duty after he was asked to take my statement and he refused indicating he was not working – asked me what I saw. I said I initially saw a group of women fighting and then I saw a man attacking and beating a woman.
“She knack me fus. She kick me belly, could mek baby come out,” the cashier said to me as she rubbed her stomach.
I informed her that the man had no right to hit the young woman and that he was wrong and should be jailed.
I waited for a while, but the officers were taking the statements from the beaten woman and the man. I could not wait any longer as I was pressed for time, but I left my telephone number and said I could be called if I was needed. I also left my number with the petite young woman who asked me for some financial assistance so she could accompany her friend to the hospital to get a medical.
She explained to me that she and the friend worked at the supermarket and they were being underpaid. On Thursday, October 1, the friend worked half day and was only paid $500. She protested and I am unclear if she left the job or was fired. However, on October 4, she was no longer working there but visited her friend and was speaking to her in the entrance of the supermarket. This apparently angered the cashier, who approached her, there was an argument and then a fight broke out.
I have not heard from the friend nor the officers at the Enmore Police Station and I suspect that the supermarket might have settled the matter with the young woman.
That being said, I am ashamed of those men from the Enmore community who stood and watched the woman being beaten. I condemn them for their inaction; they should hang their heads in shame. I know they are from Enmore because most of them left on foot, which for me is confirmation that they live in the very community. I am also appalled at the response of the officers at the Enmore Police Station. That young woman could have been dead in the length of time they took to respond.
The incident also once again drove home the fact that we are not a caring society. That the attitude of not getting involved is still the way to go for many. We have never been our brothers or sisters’ keepers, and this may never happen. If we don’t care for our own, who will? And might I add that my sister and myself were the only two individuals who were of a different ethnicity from the young woman who was being beaten. Well of course apart from the two Chinese nationals.
I did inform the cashier that I will not spend another cent in that supermarket. And I here say it again, Awen (8) Supermarket will never again see me as a customer.
