The brutal slaying of Joy St. Omer this week has drawn sharp comments from many in St. Lucian society, and while the case should not be litigated in the public space, one cannot help but have their say on the community shattering issue.
The 24-year-old mother was found dead in the driver seat of her vehicle on Wednesday evening, presumably as a result of gun shot wounds about her body. Police have since reportedly held her ex-partner, who is also the father of her child, in the matter. It gets even more bizarre. Unconfirmed reports suggest that at the time of the tragic incident, the ex-partner may have been in violation of a restraining order after finding himself in police custody for physical abuse earlier this year. Even worse. An unverified audio file of a conversation between the two is making the rounds on social media, a conversation that is chilling enough conjure up outrage in certain sectors of the nation.
Whether these bits of information are factual or not, it has raised a whole range of new conversations about what should or should not be, what should have happened, who’s at fault for not acting and the dynamics of how our justice system operates.
First and foremost, this should never be happening in our small population of 180,000 odd society.
The social media professors are continuously having their say, some with vile suggestions, others with more conservative outlooks. Some have postured as online phycologists, suggesting the cause and St. Lucia’s way forward.
One of the most thundering calls is for the reinstatement of the death penalty. That has been met with widespread support among online specialists.
Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre immediately came out with a sobering call for peace, accented with a heavy dose of conversation based conflict resolution while insisting on swift justice particularly for instances involving violence against women.
A number of questions must be asked, again.
Is the justice system functioning effectively in matters involving violence against women?
Are the police (RSLPF) proactive enough to avert incidents like these?
Should the emphasis be on intense early childhood education?
And then there is the elephant in the room. Should the death penalty be reinstituted to act as a deterrent to would be serious crime offenders?
The fact is, and data has proven, that the death penalty hardly puts a dent in the number of serious crimes committed in most environments. If that is to be taken as gospel, then we may have to look at the longer process of early childhood education, counselling and, as the PM suggested, conflict resolution conversations.
These all seem like pale suggestions when one considers the gravity of the crime in question at the moment.
Whatever the way forward, it has to start immediately. Then again, we have experienced heinous crimes in the past and the same was said at those times yet here we are.
Even the Bible speaks of conflict resolution but seemingly in contradictory terms. “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. — Exodus 21:23-24.
And then there is this……” You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. — Matthew 5:38-39.
May the lord help us all.