GRIEF NEVER ENDS

Sep 30, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

He was only 13 years old, innocent, smart and was loved by his relatives and friends. He was brutally murdered and his body thrown into the Berbice River. Leonard Archibald had his life snuffed out in the spring of his life. He was brutally sodomized and tortured by a serial rapist, and his accomplice.
The high school student did not have to die this way. It is one senseless death too many. He had his full life ahead of him. Many in the ancient county and beyond are in anguish as they try to come to grips with the brutal death of a child who had so much to live for.
His horrific death lit up every newspaper in the country and the social media. It was tragic and should not have happened.
Leonard Archibald’s death at the hands of two sick people who preyed on and attacked the vulnerable in society should cause us all to reflect on our role in keeping our children safe. And though his young mother and father may have already been actively dreaming of the type of young man they would have liked him to become, and of the sort of future they wanted him to have, those dreams are now totally shattered.
He did not have a chance to escape. Had he lived, one could not help but wonder what he would have been able to achieve in life; what would have been his profession; and what role he would have played in society. But alas! It was not meant to be.
Could anything have been done to save this sweet, innocent child from death? And is there going to be a more tragic story like this one? This latest incident has left many in the community outraged and the entire nation feeling hurt and angry.
Leonard Archibald’s death serves as a bitter reminder of the harrowing deaths of several other children and adults.
We are not saying that the police should be in a position to know what happens behind every closed door or to read a person’s mind to know what he/she would do, but as reported, countless warnings about the perpetrators were ignored by the police. Protecting children from predators must be their primary concern of all in society but more so for the police who have taken an oath to serve and protect the nation.
Amidst the scorching heat from the midmorning sun, residents from Sisters Village, along the East Bank of Berbice and from afar joined regional officials, students, relatives and friends to pay their last respects to the murdered Leonard Archibald.
As emotions overflowed at the funeral service, and with tears in her eyes, his young mother blurred out: This is not right, no mother and father should have to bare this pain.”
Let us hope that there will be no more Leonard Archibalds. Society cannot bear witness to another cruel man-made tragedy like this.
It is true that one is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law, but when it comes to children, we proffer that it is better to be safe than sorry, and that protection of the innocent and vulnerable in the society must be our primary concern.
The state needs to do all within its power to ensure that the murderers never see the light of day again. It would restore faith in the justice system. And while it would give his relatives and the nation a real chance at healing, the grief will never end.

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