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clevon_raphael@hotmail.com
Ugly
face of child abuse
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Three-year-old child brutalised by his father at Diego
Martin supermarket.
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After beating child security guard is kicked and cuffed
by same man.
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Citizens should be able to remove abused children from life-threatening
environment.
Brutality—physically
and otherwise—meted out to children is something I can
never come to terms with.
I can’t understand how any adult in his right mind, or
even those mentally challenged, can even think of unleashing
violence on those who they are supposed to protect.
The emotional pain is too much for me whenever I hear of our
young ones being hurt by anybody, hence my reason for consciously
deciding a long time ago not to pay attention to such stories
in the news again.
Mainly because we as adults are virtually powerless to take
any meaningful measures to halt the abuse of the youngsters
in so many of these horrible circumstances.
My intention was to continue what I began last week about
citizens obtaining the right to bear arms to protect themselves
and family from the marauding bandits now plaguing our country.
Those who our Police Service seems powerless to apprehend.
But I had a heavy change of heart when I heard the distressing
story told to me by a female friend who witnessed what I can
only describe as a beastly act perpetuated against an innocent
child less than three years old, some time last week.
Let me try and reproduce as faithfully as I can what she told
me, while still sounding traumatised over the heart-wrenching
episode.
She: “Clevon, last night I witnessed the worst case of
child abuse I have ever seen.”
Me: “Really, what are you talking about?”
She: “Last night, we (she and her husband) went to the
supermarket in Diamond Vale, and there was this child, you
know like any other child, playfully running along the aisles.
“His
very annoyed father grabbed his hand and to the top of his
voice shouted: ‘Ah thought ah tell you not to run up
down the blasted place?’
“He
then took off his belt and proceeded to rain blows all over
the child’s body, including the back of his neck.
“Well
after 45 seconds when it appeared as though he would not stop
beating the now hysterically bawling child, I asked him, ‘Why
don’t you stop beating the child like that?’
“He
replied: ‘This is my (expletive deleted) child and I
could kill him if I want to.’
“As
the brutalising of the child continued, my husband intervened,
pleading with the man to stop beating the child.
“You
know what he told him. He said: ‘Like you want to get
something too or what? Is my effeing child.’
“The
licking continued, which by this time was being witnessed
by a crowd of shocked shoppers.
“One
of them secretly telephoned the police who mercifully went
to the supermarket and spoke to the child, would you believe,
in the presence of the father.
“The
indignant father told the police he was disciplining his child
who was by now experiencing fits of short breath, no doubt
brought on by the blows he received at the hands of someone
who should be the last person to inflict such a beating on
any child.”
My friend said the swellings where the blows landed, especially
on the child’s neck, were testimony to the viciousness
of the flogging.
She said the two policemen left the crying child in the “care”
of his father, with not even a warning of intended prosecution.
My bewildered friend continued:
“After
the police left, Clevon, the raging bull of a father rushed
the supermarket’s security guard, accusing him of calling
the police.
“He
kicked and cuffed down the poor man in full view of customers.
“And
you know what was another sickening part of this episode?
The mother of this traumatised child was holding on to the
child, not to defend him from his father but for the boy to
receive the blows. I couldn’t believe what we were witnessing.”
As said earlier, we adults are powerless to help the child
victims and the above incident horribly demonstrates what
I am talking about.
In instances like these eyewitnesses should be able to take
the children away from the abusive environment and carry them
to the nearest shelter until the abusers, parents or otherwise,
are dealt with.
Do the police have the authority to remove children, as in
this case, from what was clearly a life-threatening situation?
If they do in fact have such authority, why wasn’t it
exercised that evening?
Any adult for that matter ought to be given the legal power
to remove such at-risk youngsters to a safe place provided
for and maintained by the State.
Is that “father” fit to have children under his
care?
If that “father” could so brazenly and cruelly inflict
such pain on his own flesh and blood in the public, what kind
of “discipline” is this tot getting at home?
Was that child taken to his “home” to be further
brutalised in such a manner that perhaps the consequences
could be more disastrous?
What is preventing the Government from establishing the Children’s
Authority legislation which was passed under the UNC administration?
When would we as a nation take seriously the welfare of our
young children and senior citizens?
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