Less than a month after 24-year-old Corentyne resident Cindy Ramchandar was stabbed to death on August 8, 28-year-old Tacina Dazzell of La Bonne Intention suffered the same fate on August 26. One month prior to Ms Ranchandar’s murder on July 5, another 24-year-old, Zenida April, a member of the Guyana Defence Force, escaped with her life after being stabbed eight times. Ms April’s mother, who was with her and raised an alarm, was also stabbed once.
In each of the three instances the attacks were allegedly perpetrated by the women’s male partners. Ms Ramchandar had left her matrimonial home because of domestic violence and following a subsequent knife attack, which she had reported to the police, had virtually been in hiding. Still, her attacker, who has since been charged with her murder, was able to stalk and ambush her. Ms Dazzell had planned to leave her partner of over two years. Relatives revealed that there had been abuse in the relationship, but the police were quick to point out that no reports had ever been made. In this case, the suspect surrendered to the police after initially fleeing the scene.
In Ms April’s case, she was in the process of moving out from her common-law partner’s residence at Paradise, East Coast Demerara, when she was attacked. She had been accompanied by her mother, her brother and a cousin to remove her belongings after visiting two police stations and being told there was no officer available to accompany her. Based on the reported events, there is little doubt that Ms April’s fate and perhaps her mother’s as well, could have been worse if they did not have reinforcements waiting outside. The suspect has since been charged with attempted murder.
The general public often tends to put a period to such cases because they appear to be open and shut. In the instances listed above, as in many others, there are witnesses to these horrific acts; usually the children, parents, other relatives, neighbours, even the odd passerby. However, by the time cases reach the court, and this could be a year or two or three or five, things have somehow changed. Evidence is misplaced, either maladroitly or deliberately; witnesses can no longer be found, have lost interest (if they weren’t a family member), misremember, or have been paid to do so.
To compound this, very often in murder cases state prosecutors accept pleas of guilty to manslaughter, avoiding a trial. State Prosecutor Natasha Backer told this newspaper early last year: “The sad reality is that no matter the weight of the evidence, there is no guarantee that the jury is going to return a verdict of guilty, because remember things can happen that are not supposed to happen.” That sounds suspiciously like an admission that the system is broken and the authorities’ response is ‘oh well’.
Then, there are judges who take into consideration the accused’s remorse, behaviour on remand while awaiting trial, along with favourable probation reports and impose single-figure sentences. In short, a man who murders his wife or girlfriend could easily spend just about as much time in prison as someone convicted of a white-collar crime. Consider these cases in point. In March this year, Davanand Narine, who had stabbed his wife Farida Khayum to death in 2019, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. However, the judge then took mitigating factors into account and made several subtractions from that number. At the end, his term was reduced to a mere seven years. In July, Kavil Reece, who was found guilty of property fraud and forgery was handed a six-year prison term. This raises the question as to what is a woman’s life really worth? If it is worth anything, why doesn’t the punishment fit the crime? Are such sentences meant to deter domestic violence killings?
This seems to be a real conundrum that perhaps should be approached differently. It is well known that the police’s response to domestic violence – long before it reaches the killing stage – leaves a lot to be desired. When is the hierarchy of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) going to take action on this; besides posturing and blowing hot air that is? One way would be to discipline police officers who do not follow the standard operating procedures as laid out in the Domestic Violence Act (1996), which by the way is overdue for some strong amendments.
That being said, it is not only the GPF that needs to take stock of itself. While domestic violence is a crime, it is also a worldwide societal ill and if it is to be truly curbed then every institution, in fact every citizen has a role to play. The same way we teach children to beware of predators, we should be training them to pay attention to certain predilections.
Other societies are constantly coming up with ways to address this ongoing global pandemic that is so far showing every sign of speeding up rather than slowing down. In Scotland, for example, a bill has been proposed that would create a domestic abusers register, make rehabilitation measures for abusers mandatory and allow for school-age education on domestic violence to be compulsory.
The fact is that by the time a domestic violence report reaches the police it is already too late for the victim. There needs to be more of a focus on prevention and perhaps the Scottish Parliament has that right. We (meaning parents, guardians and learning institutions too) should be inculcating positive behaviours in our children as well as instructing them on the different types of abuse and harassment, the same way Maths, English, Science and Home Economics form part of their education. Proactivity could very well be what saves future generations from repeating this dreadful cycle.
