Death due to a Flaw in the Law -Protection or Disconnection?

Aug 10, 2018 Letters

Editor,
Are the police neglecting their duty thereby endangering the public via a false sense of security?
The gruesome fate that Rohini Sabrina Lakhan met at the hands of her husband Ramesh Ramdeen should never have taken place. After years of being subjected to physical abuse, here she was putting the necessary steps in place to remove herself from the existing Hades.
Yes, she had returned on several occasions but this time was different, no longer was she going to be the recipient of verbal and physical abuse.
Enter additional actors into the scenario at the Albion Magistrate’s Court, all purportedly working towards the attainment of the same goal—separation from her husband, and a protection order issued against the husband thereby limiting his contact with his wife once she departs the shared residence.
Following the conclusion of the case two law enforcement representatives accompanied the couple back to the house to retrieve the wife’s clothing, as she requested to leave the domicile.
It is at this juncture that basic common sense fails to make an appearance, and protocol beggar’s revision. Multiple documented studies reveal that domestic violence continued, or increased in severity after separation.
Batterers who kill their partners usually do so at the time the victim is in the process of separating from their abuser.
Why then was the victim in the company of the individual against whom she had just secured a protection order? Among the conditions listed in a protection order, includes an order that the person has no contact whatsoever with the person that the order is intended to protect.
It is obvious that in the act of seeking protection, Rohini was placing her trust and safety, even her life in the hands of several professionals: the magistrate who granted the separation and issued the protection order, the police officers who served and enforced the order. All these links in the civil protection chain should be connected and operating in unison.
The ranks were initially sent on a specific mission, what rationale would they proffer for departing before the mission was accomplished? Were they rookies or crooked cops? The indicators and circumstances for continued domestic violence were all in place, along with an added potential for lethal outcome.
It is critical that the ranks tasked with ensuring adherence to a protective order, not only take the order seriously themselves, but also act appropriately when the order is violated? One is left to ponder why Guyana’s law protection agencies/representatives always display an inability to get even the simplest of tasks right.
There was a protective order; the husband was in her presence, a clear violation of the order.
According to the American Bar Association: protective orders only reduce the risk of further violence if the restrained party is convinced they will be enforced. If protection orders are not enforced by law enforcement and the courts, they are nothing more than pieces of paper that actually increase the victim’s risk.
Reliance on protection that does not actually exist places victims in even greater danger than if they’d never obtained a protective order.
The facts of this case are egregious but sadly common. On the part of the police there appears to be a consistent lack of true policing or police behavior. The entire situation further reflects both the behavior and quality of policing and law enforcement currently in effect in Guyana.
What options are available in the face of ineffective protective enforcement, especially in cases where it results in loss of lives? Who is accountable?
Sadly, the evidence revealing the flaws and failures that allow domestic violence to morph into domestic homicide are systemic and ongoing. Therein lies the reason why abusers should see the police as enforcers, and that there are consequences for violation(s)
An investigation is warranted into this tragic but totally preventable situation. On the way to remediation and rectification it may be worthwhile to include provision and revision as it pertains to enforcement of protective orders, especially for the ranks.
The course we must alter as wives continue to pay with their lives. A change must come and soon.
Y. Sam.

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