Orville Taylor | You can’t kill them all

The public has divided views regarding the live broadcast by four suspects who were attempting to prevent the police from ending their lives in Spalding.

A scene straight from out of a movie, these men allegedly part of a group of robbers, found themselves cornered and locked themselves in the storeroom of a supermarket in the Manchester town.

To the credit of the constabulary, there was quick response, and on the face of it, what looks like an attempted robbery quickly turned into a hostage situation. Fearing for their lives, these young men, fully schooled in the TikTok phone application, went live and started pleading for their lives. Interestingly, one declared, “We want surrender but … We never planned … Better life we want, you know. Better life we want … A college me a go, you know. Tru, you don’t know, tru the thing set a way.”

Other members of the group pleaded for their lives, including the unmistakable, “Do! Nuh mek dem kill we!”

Understand this: these are young men and they are people’s children. But the interesting thing about TikTok is that it has an interesting way of humanising persons who may otherwise be faceless. Doubtless, some members of the public, always sympathetic to a defeated individual, who pleads for his life, were happy for the outcome - period

Do not forget, however, that two policemen were reportedly injured by gunfire, and the police seized four firearms, including the very powerful Kalashnikov, also known as an AK47 assault rifle. Inasmuch as it is the Christmas season, these are not toy guns, water pistols, or soakers. They are deadly weapons, and based on the numbers and the profile of our homicide perpetrators and victims, it is young men like these who feature most dominantly in the statistics regarding violent crimes

While one cannot be absolutely certain as to what course of action the police would ultimately have pursued, had the encounter not being recorded live, one should not assume that the young men would have met their demise at the hands of the cops simply because they had engaged them in a firefight.

DEADLY FORCE POLICY

The training of police officers in the use of deadly force policy is instructed by guidelines outlined in earlier columns about the sanctity of life. Indeed, there have been multiple occasions, where criminal suspects, once controlled and the threat reduced or eliminated, have been simply taken into custody.

It is not as anomalous as one would think. After all, just a few years ago, then Senior Superintendent of Police Maurice Robinson, faced with a similar situation, spoke with a facility with the English language and clarity he must have learned in high school and advised the individuals holed up in the establishment that surrender was not an option but the only choice.

Be not mistaken that based on the evidence, the young men had indeed engaged the police, and recognising that they were in a ‘no-win’ situation, although I suspect it was not a ‘no wind’ situation, no longer fought but, perhaps, did other things.

Indeed, had the men continued and decided to take their chances with the police officers, who are much better trained and certainly much better armed, then the news report would have been different. At the end of the day, lives were spared. Yet these young men must face the justice system, and if convicted, pay the penalty.

Social media have been used for the delivery of information, and unfortunately, some gruesome things, especially over the last few weeks.

A relatively popular user, described as a ‘rising star,’ met his supernova while broadcasting on TikTok. While this demonstrates the brazenness and sense of impunity of the criminals, it is a statement to us that these acts of violence are everybody’s business, and even if we turn our backs on them, they will find us and appear smack in our faces.

RECORDED BEATING

Also right before our eyes, just a few weeks ago, a set of school boys from Hopewell, Hanover, were recorded severely beating a schoolmate, and in yet another ghastly crime, some boys did the unthinkable to a girl and had the audacity to record it

Thankfully, I neither got to see this last video nor do I have any desire to, and certainly, the Child Care and Protection Act and the Child Pornography Act would preclude me from doing so unless I were directly part of an investigation or intervention. So let me advise personsw ho find themselves with the despicable video that they should delete all copies and never forward to anyone.

I will not pretend that my humanity, male protective instincts, and certainly, my paternal DNA do not trigger a set of responses, which if followed, would land me right there. Duh! I am human, and every nerve in my body burned in anger when I saw this assault, and others, including one, where an older and bigger boy maliciously kicked up a tiny one in a primary school. And as for these would-be robbery suspects, there is a lot of sucking of teeth that ‘the police never killed di bwoy dem’.

Whatever might be your disappointment, the conversation must begin with an assumption that all human life, as a matter of fact, all life is sacred and should never be taken, except in the circumstances where an animal has to feed or in the prevention of injury to another human being. Our male children must learn this early.

Yet, as said in the headline of this column, we cannot kill them all and must find ways of reducing the production of criminals. Often, good boys do bad things, with wrong influences.

Said better than any ‘goody two shoes’ behavioural scientist, like myself, rape survivor Tamika Williams understands the deep sociology behind deviant conduct. Clearly not advocating being unpunished, she asserts that there needs to be a re-education or resocialisation of our males.

Remember this! As awful as they may behave, boys do not raise themselves.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.