A GUY'S VIEW
“When my son was two years old, we got a Samoyed puppy, and for the next 18 months they were the best of friends. Then the dog changed. Suddenly she started growling at my son and biting him. At first I thought that maybe he was pulling her tail or something else that was irritating her, but that wasn’t it.
My dog had become an adult and instinct kicked in. She became concerned with her place in the pack hierarchy. I learned that our family was her pack, that I was alpha-dog, and that she had no intention of being at the bottom of the pecking order. That meant someone had to be beneath her and the easiest choice was my toddler.
Through training and discipline we got the biting to stop, but to this day she still considers my son subordinate to her.”
I borrowed this extract from an article written by Robert Evans Wilson Jr., entitled Pack Mentality. It carried the subtitle, “Humans are as motivated by status as pack animals”. Recent WhatsApp videos sent to my phone caused me to look more closely at this phenomenon.
The latest “breaking news” on social media last week was of two groups of children from secondary schools behaving like pack animals as they gang up one of the group.
Someone who was familiar with the parties in the St. Thomas school video believes that the principal protagonist in that event was a student who had returned to school after becoming a mother. Motherhood, one thought, would bring a greater sense of maturity which would lift one above peers who did not have that wonderful experience. It seems that theory may have to be thrown through the window.
A second video was of a bold man who used his phone to record and give a running commentary of a police stop of a vehicle of which he was apparently the driver. His recording included his colourful language and his general hostility to the officers who were doing their job.
A number of law enforcement officers would have recoiled in disbelief as they watched and listened to that video. However, the officers took the abuse and did nothing beyond their check.
One only hopes that our police officers have not softened to the point where they are willing to let loud mouth coots influence how they do their jobs. No one’s father should influence how that person is dealt with by the police.
Maybe the time has come for consideration to be given by law enforcement and other organisations, like the Child Care Board, to using information captured on social media to form the basis of deeper investigations into illegal activity. There is a big difference between using a recording as evidence in a criminal trial and using that same recording as a lead in an investigation.
Assuming that the pack mentality will hold and the students who participated or witnessed the beating of the students in the recent videos will not come forward and give an account of what happened, what recourse is available to the victims of these assaults? Is it acceptable that a child who went to school could be set upon by people behaving like crazed wild animals and no legal protection should be available to her?
Parents should consider using the information available to them to bring a civil action against the perpetrators of these crimes, for they are crimes. The civil standard of proof is much lower than the criminal standard, but there seems to be little doubt that the criminal standard could be reached in these cases.
There is an alternative that would seem feasible to many parents. A protective parent might decide to hunt down those children one by one and do to them a little worse than they did to their victim. Parents not so inclined should consider bringing a law suit against the school, the Ministry of Education, the Royal Barbados Police Force and the Attorney General if they believe that no action, or inadequate action, was taken to either protect their children or to legally pursue those who harmed them.
Barbados has grown used to hearing of young girls who go missing from time to time. I was told that a radio personality said that there is a pornographic website, or some similar name, where one could regularly see some of those missing teens.
If there is a video of a teenaged girl who is unable to give consent to a sexual act, engaged in sex with an adult, what would be the justification for the relevant authorities not using that video to conduct investigations into the whereabouts and activities of the once missing teen, and whether she was statutorily raped during her time away? Even if one were to say that she was a willing participant, that could not be a defence if she was unable to give consent in law. A video of this nature could form the basis of an investigation into a rape charge.
A recording like this could also be useful for the Child Care Board as that entity fights to find the best ways to protect our children. In addition to what it allows them to learn about the teen with which they are dealing, references to other agencies may also be better informed.
Our enlightened way of thinking tells us that we should not seek to enforce the norms of the culture by punishing code breakers. By this view, those who suffer at the hands of bullies or rapists should take their licking and leave it to the theorists to moralise on how to address the negative behaviour.
However, there is another side. The victims deserve justice, and other potential victims deserve to be protected. Our society breeds bullies by not punishing bullies. The evidence is standing before our eyes for all to see. Just look at the societies that have taken that path. Their schools are war zones; their young people are out of control. How can we do what they did and expect a different result?