Take back our nation, say protestors

“We are tired, we are fed up, we are taking a stand,” said African Methodist Episcopalian Church’s Yvette Smart Paul in a group prayer. She prayed, “Lord help us put the scourge of violence behind us.” Network of Women’s NGOs’ Hazel Brown lamented that for too long people cry and scream at individual deaths but no one is tackling the root cause of violence. She said violence is a learned behaviour, which in turn can be unlearned.

Marcus Kissoon of the Organization for Abused and Battered Individuals (OABI) blamed gender violence on “toxic masculinity and female inequality”. Adeeta Kissoon told Newsday, “I’ve grown really tired of the crime situation. Crime against young women and children is taking a toll on me. If I continue speaking I’ll cry. You’d hear of one murder here and another there, but now people are being killed in groups.” She empathised with Banfield’s parents, saying, “ You can’t ever get over a child’s death.

It’s incurable”. Sherna Alexander Benjamin of the Victim Advocacy Service Centre Office (VASCO) told the gathering that without activism victims’ names will be forgotten, as she vowed to support an upcoming vigil in Penal. One women said Banfield could have been her or even her daughter.

“None of the past murders are any less than Shannon, but I think the nation has reached its breaking point,” she surmised. “Everyone of us must do our part, no matter how small. In our schools no effort is too small. We have to take a stand.

We are frustrated and fed up and need to take back our nation.”