By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterTHE VIOLENT killing of another female, the sixth in three weeks, has provoked the ire of women's groups across the island.
On Monday night 39-year-old Pamela Thompson, of Little Eight Street, Greenwich Town, St. Andrew was shot and killed by gun-toting criminals, and a 40-year-old family member shot and injured.
Wholesale operator 39-year-old Patricia Powell-Bloomfield was killed on January 12 by gunmen who invaded her premises at Hill Avenue in Olympic Gardens, St. Andrew. On January 2, an American national, Michelle Thornton, and her young daughter were brutally killed at their home in St. Ann.
Paulette Johnson, a housewife of St. Ann, went missing on January 9. She was killed and her body dumped in a water tank at Alberly district in Iverness, St. Ann. Her body was discovered by the police on January 16. And a 38-year-old farmer, Hilary Salmon, who went to attend to her cattle, was stabbed and killed near her home in Dutch Hill, Trelawny, on January 15.
The St. Ann police have since picked up one man in connection with Johnson's death and another man was questioned in relation to the Thorntons' deaths. He was later released. The other cases are still being investigated.
NOT BEING RESPECTED
"One of our priorities is the issue of violence against women. They are not being respected and are sometimes killed with their children," commented Dr. Glenda Simms of the Bureau of Women's Affair.
According to her, it was mostly men who were perpetrating acts of violence. Dr. Simms said men took out their anger on women, especially those who are dependents.
"We are also concerned about the rising cases of sexual offences against women," said Dr. Simms.
While the Government is involved in legislative review and the police in a number of social programmes, Dr. Simms said the bureau had been involved in several educational programmes, in an attempt to address the problem.
Hilary Nicholson of Women's Media Watch said when young inner-city or rural men with no skills, resources and aspirations need to feel worthwhile, they resort to the gun, which gives them a degree of control over another person.
"We at Women's Media Watch are very concerned about the definition of masculinity that emphasises the need to control another, otherwise you are not a real man," said Ms. Nicholson.
She further said that a businessman can use money and status to think he has control over others.
"So 'bling' is important as a show of money and power, but the youth with nothing resorts to controlling his woman through violence," she further said.
Ms. Nicholson stressed that her organisation was also concerned about the violent killing of men too, but because women and the gender role they play in being the main caregivers for children and the elderly, their death sometimes transformed many children into orphans.
"The value that promotes revenge is also dangerously alive in our society, and there are young men revenging their own father's absence, neglect and abuse," said Ms. Nicholson, whose organisation has been working at all levels in a number of communities.
