Why was Akiel discharged?

Why was Akiel Jeffrey, the eight-year-old Petit Valley schoolchild, who was shot by a stray bullet early New Year’s morning, discharged from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC) on Sunday only a day after surgery? We ask the question because young Jeffrey had to be rushed back to the EWMSC for treatment when he experienced severe stomach pains not too long after he had been discharged. Would it not have been better for Akiel Jeffrey to have been kept at the Medical Sciences Complex for a few days to monitor his progress, particularly as the stray bullet which had entered through his left shoulder had lodged itself in his ribs?

Or was there a question of availability of beds and the authorities had concluded that Akiel’s problem was trivial? Did they view Akiel’s condition as not being major and had come to the conclusion that he was occupying bed space which they felt would have been better utilised by another child? Was this not a cynical dismissal of the health concerns of a minor who, apart from being shot and the bullet lodging itself in his ribs, would have suffered trauma as well? Many persons must have been shocked by the report in the January 2 edition of Newsday of the youngster who had been felled by a bullet, one of several shots fired into the air by a young man at Cameron Road, Petit Valley, who “celebrated” the birth of the New Year by discharging a firearm in clear contravention of the law. In addition, it is believed that he was in illegal possession of the weapon.

Meanwhile, almost as odd as Akiel Jeffrey’s early discharge from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex was the clearly ludicrous statement made by senior police officers warning members of the public to desist from firing into the air bullets from illegal guns. Did the unnamed officers mean that it would have been in order for persons with licensed firearms to have discharged them as a means of celebrating the New Year? Or that it would have been all right to have discharged the guns but not into the air? Some of the residents of Cameron Road advised that it was customary for gang members in the area to shoot bullets into the air to “ring in the New Year.”

In turn, they claimed that they had made reports to the Police that the same lawless young men were “always in possession of guns,” but that they had received no response from the Police. Remarkably, however, senior Police officers have declared, almost as a New Year resolution that during 2005 they intended to conduct a series of raids to rid the country of illegal guns! But exactly how do the Police intend to effect this, when the first step in any such exercise, that of responding to complaints by citizens about persons who were in possession of illegal firearms had not taken place? And because of their inaction something a lot more serious could have happened to eight-year-old Akiel Jeffrey, or another person could have been killed by a stray bullet.

The Police are there to protect and serve, and while empty public relations promises by them may appear to make good reading, nonetheless taxpaying citizens and their families deserve a lot more than that. A serious effort must be made by the Police Service in 2005 to rid the country of illegal weapons, or at least to make the start toward reducing the number of these guns. Already, for the year just gone — 2004 — there were all too many cases of gang related and other murders as well as armed robberies because there were Police officers who had refused to take the required action. The shooting of Akiel Jeffrey, however accidental, was, if we are to believe residents of Cameron Road, Petit Valley and there is no reason for us to do otherwise, the result of this inaction.