The practice is not new, but it is now blatantly nefarious. The murdering of children that our country seemingly grew accustomed to over the years has now sunk to a new low in the deepening abyss of serious crime.
Shockwaves ricocheted throughout the country a few days ago as the news of the brutal butchering of four children ages 15, 12, 5, and a one year-old, along with their mother, inside their home in Chapelton, quickly spread. It was the first time, to my knowledge, that this type of mass massacre of children had ever taken place in our nation.
What we do know, however, is that child murders have been a steadily increasing feature of Jamaican life for the past several decades. In fact, so prevalent have the killings of our youngest citizens become, that the monument downtown Kingston to honour and keep in remembrance those who have died violently and tragically has for over five years been completely out of space for new names. The four children massacred this week will not have their names etched on the monument until more room is created for the dead.
Before this horrendous case becomes another “nine-day wonder”, it seems to me that some important questions must be asked of the people in authority and the public in general. When exactly did the practice of specifically murdering children begin? Can it be traced to any specific societal shifts, and what, if any, lessons have we learned from this trend?
There was a time in our country when women and children were exempt from being murdered. It was an unwritten law within the criminal underworld.
Slowly, that began to change. Not only did we start seeing our young ones cut down by stray bullets during gang warfare, but increasingly, children were becoming direct targets of gun violence as the phenomenon of “Can’t catch Quako, so we catch him shut” began taking root. Criminals made it clear that innocent children would pay the price for whatever problems or issues they had with the adults. Children had become ‘collateral damage’.
The emerging orthodoxy of the ‘adultisation’ of children also came into play. Teenage boys wrapped up in gangs and crime were no longer viewed as children, but as ‘big people’ to be treated as such. The delineating lines between children and adults became as quickly blurred as the pace of adolescent violence.
As child murders and other serious crimes against children steadily increased, so did the inability of law enforcement to effectively grapple with the problem, sending an inadvertent message that there are child killers in the society that may not be caught. It has made some criminals fearless.
The well-known case of Ananda Dean, after whom the Ananda Alert is named, is perhaps the best example. It has been 14 years since the 11-year-old at the time was abducted and savagely murdered, yet to date, no one has ever been charged, let alone prosecuted, for that crime. Hers is among several other unsolved child murders.
Not only do child killers recognise the investigative and institutional weaknesses that exist, they exploit them knowing that they can harm children and walk about the society scot free.
The inability to apprehend and prosecute some of Jamaica’s child killers leads to an array of questions, perhaps the most concerning being, Do we have child serial killers in our midst?
Experts everywhere in the world tell us that killers that are not caught and put away will kill and kill again. Do we know if this is happening in our jurisdiction?
The Chapelton case is, of course, different in that regard since it was reported that the alleged offender has been apprehended. While it is clear, however, that the young man in question will not be able to inflict harm on anyone else, anytime soon, the case engenders other compelling questions.
Who are child killers, and what do we know about them? Have we invested time and energy in studying those who have been caught and convicted?
Do we know their backgrounds and their psychological histories? It seems highly abnormal for a young person to savagely and systematically slit the throats of four children, including a baby. Is he a psychopath or a sociopath? Has he killed before?
Studies about these types of criminals not only serve to inform, but to prevent. Parents, family members, and the wider public would be educated on what the red flags and warning signs are before it is too late.
Finally, our nation needs to use the Chapelton case as a watershed moment that will either provide solutions or allow us to sink even lower.
An urgent ‘Chapelton Children’ movement should emerge, marshalling all the country’s sectoral forces – public, private, and civil – to find doable and meaningful solutions.
Violence against one child, let alone four in one fell swoop, is violence against all of us – it diminishes our collective humanity.
We must act!
Betty Ann Blaine is a child advocate and founder of Hear The Children’s Cry and Youth Opportunities Unlimited. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com [2].