Once again we are faced with a dreadful multiple murder in our society, and what makes some of these more frightening is that, once again, this is not apparently gang or drug related, but involved a young mother and two children in the presumed sanctity of their home.
The killing of Vonetta Haynes-Reyes, and her two little boys, Malik and Makasi Reyes, in La Horquetta on Thursday seems to have no discernable motive.
We have grown sadly accustomed to a range of alleged “motives” for the murders of our women and their children.
And while we try to come to terms with these killings in the east, we also have to face up to the dread of two connected, but separate suicides in south. One of them, Rehana Nandlal was a mere child of 15, who ran away from home on Monday, and was found frothing at the mouth on the steps of a church on Tuesday. She had drunk poison, and died shortly thereafter. In her diary, Rehana had described her “love affair” with a Health and Safety Officer at her school, a married man of 52. The following day, the man, Hydar Mohammed, also drank poison and died.
It is difficult to determine which is the more tragic story gripping our now battered society. How often in this year alone have we risen up in fear, anger, and horror at the violence being perpetrated upon our women and our young children? And make no mistake about it, however little Rehana might have thought that she was in love and in a loving relationship, she was an ongoing victim of rape by an older man, who appeared to have no plans to leave his wife for this child he was abusing.
As a society we need to address two questions, even as we wonder if these
can be answered.
The first is, given the number of women murdered this year, some even burned to death by their partners, how many of our women (and indeed their children) are now living among us and facing the possibility of being murdered?
And how many of our girl children are now living in similar sexual relationships as Rehana was, with older men? And we are not considering 17 to 21-year-old boys as “older men” here. We are talking about “full men” old enough to be the fathers (and sometimes they are!) of the girls whom they are abusing.
Given the frequency of the crimes against women and children, and the ongoing disappearances of young girls — some of whom are never seen alive again, although some seem to run away from what they perceive to be overly strict parents—we are facing a frightening prospect indeed.
We all need to be aware that the next victim of violence, or of ongoing sexual abuse could be our relative or neighbour, and that among the groups of schoolgirls wending their way between school and home, could be in some sexual relationships similar to Rehana’s. These are the potential next victims of murder and suicide.
But what can we do about it? These crimes are less “preventable” by the police than are the gang killings. Police sleuthing cannot unearth the type of evils which may have caused the deaths of the Reyes family, or stopped poor little Rehana drinking poison on her own terrifying and lonely last day. It is up to us, the society rather than the police, who must carry the burden of eliminating these horrors from our lives.
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