Killed for Nothing in Trinidad

Killed for Nothing in Trinidad

Club Soda and Salt,

Given the drumbeat of murder reports from Trinidadian newspapers, there’s always a fear of becoming desensitized to the violence. Sometimes, though, you get a heartbreaking incident like this:

Sherwyn Joseph scolded a four-year-old boy for breaking eggs and was shot dead minutes after the child’s relative threatened him for what he did on Thursday night in Sea Lots, Port of Spain.

Joseph worked at the National Flour Mills, but that night he was at home when he saw the four-year-old and his friend, also aged four, breaking the neighbour’s duck eggs.

“What allyuh doing that for?” he reportedly shouted and “tapped” one of the boys on the head. The other boy (Joseph’s relative) was not hit. Both children then ran off.

The other [not tapped] boy ran to his female relative as well. She asked him what happened and he told her. Enraged, she walked over to Joseph’s house and started to “cuss him out” for scolding the boy. He argued back and explained to her why he shouted at the boy. They argued. It was a heated quarrel.

Finally, she walked off, shouting at him, “your shot call!”

This captures so much. Not only is it sad to read about a 27 year old begin shot over something silly, the fact is that the reaction of that “female relative” is all part and parcel of the mess we’re in. Someone scolds your child (completely legitimately!) and your reaction is “nobody talk to my child that way” and to have him shot? Ultimately, this man was shot for doing what so many of us lack the courage to do: taking responsibility for the children in his community, instead of just ignoring them.

It’s just unbelievably depressing. And it happened in Sea Lots, so no-one will care.

http://clubsodaandsalt.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/devastating/