Thursday, July 16, 2009

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Some answers are needed It was a horrific claim that stunned the nation. When the newspapers and the electronic media first reported the story of the death of a five-month-old baby girl who was believed to have been sexually molested, it was generally considered incredible that anyone in his or her right mind would have been capable of committing such a heinous act. For more than a week the alleged horrible crime was the talk of the town, with calls for the death penalty to be reinstated for proper justice to be meted out to whomever was found guilty of this terrible crime. There were even suggestions that the death penalty was too mild a punishment for the "animal who did this to that defenseless little girl," as one irate gentleman said. When it was "leaked" or "reported" through the grapevine that the police had planned to charge someone with the crime, crowds flocked to court house grounds downtown to get a glimpse of the individual who was about to be charged. Obviously, information had been released that was considered to be credible that the police investigation had resulted in them being able to charge someone with the offense. As it turned out, that was not the case. The police had interviewed several family members, but they all were subsequently released. Then came the shocker. In an interview with ZNS radio, Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson said that the death certificate had revealed that the baby had died from "respiratory failure." How is it possible that such a mistake could have been made? Surely the blame cannot be placed at the doorsteps of the police, if the chain of events unfolded as has been reported. When informed by a staff member of the Princess Margaret Hospital that a baby who died appeared to have been sexually molested, the police did the right thing in ensuring that the matter was brought to the attention of the public by informing the press of what had been reported by the hospital. There are those who are now saying that the police should have conducted a thorough investigation into the matter before making the information public. But the police cannot be faulted for taking the steps that they took. Whenever there is a dangerous criminal loose in the community, the police should - as they generally do - inform the public through the press to be on the lookout for that criminal. Having received the information that they got from the hospital, it was only natural that they would want the public to know that there was potentially someone out there who had committed the dastardly act to sexually molesting a baby girl. Then, should the hospital official who reported the matter to the police be held responsible? That would seem to be the logical conclusion to reach, but a good argument could also me made in defense of that official. Whomever it was, when it was determined that sexual molestation was a "possible" reason for the baby's death, the individual who reported it to the police may have been so incensed that he or she wanted to waste no time in getting this information to the police so that the culprit could be caught and brought to justice as soon as possible. That's quite possible, but the shockingly monstrous nature of this case should have alerted that "medical professional" to be absolutely certain that the baby girl had been molested. Hopefully, that lesson has been learned, and such a mistake would not be made in the future. Nonetheless, some answers are need in an official explanation from the hospital as to how this mistake could have occurred. Wednesday, June 17, 2009