Glenda SimmsAn article written by Garwin Davis, titled 'Nothing unusual - Female cops say sexual harassment prevalent' appeared in the February 12, 2007 edition of The Gleaner.
This report stated that the "alleged sexual assault of a female officer at the Ocho Rios Police Station by a male colleague has been greeted by several female cops as 'common practice' and 'nothing unusual'."
Davis informed readers that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) was defined by many female officers as nothing more than an old boys club in which women were seen as more "meat than brain".
Prevalent
In this report, one female officer from St Mary said "Sexual harassment is very prevalent in the police force", and another from St Catherine reported that some of her male colleagues touched her buttocks and were surprised that she was not amused or titillated by their inappropriate, unacceptable behaviour.
In 2007, Davis concluded from the nature of the information that he gathered that many female police officers have no confidence in their male superiors, especially in cases of sexual abuse, rapes and other forms of sexual assault that are inflicted on them, because they were born women.
Like most other 'nine-day wonder' stories about the continuing oppression, repression and discrimination against women and children in the Jamaican society, the pundits, pastors, post-feminist detractors, profilers and paedophiles plugged their ears, covered their mouths and pretended that Davis' story was mere fiction.
On Tuesday, September 16, 2008, Mark Titus scripted a story that made the headlines of The Gleaner. This story details the alleged rape of a female officer who was on a pre-Gustav detail with two male colleagues. This female officer described the prototypic approach of men who hate and despise women who show some amount of human gumption and feminine pride. She reported that her male colleagues colluded in her rape by detailing the sexual acts that they imagined or fantasised as their desires as they drove around.
Obviously, there was a game plan and the predator organised for his confederate to leave the taxpayers' vehicle so that he could cut down the uppity 'police gyal' to size. After all, she a "gwaan like she a virgin", and he had verbally threatened to rape her on other occasions.
"She tink a joke him a joke".
The power of brawn over brain forced another woman to endure the most dehumanising of human experiences - 'sex against her will'.
Defend her right
Another female officer who was raped lived to tell her story to Mark Titus, and has the resolve to press her case against her brutal colleague. This she is prepared to do in spite of the male and female voices that try to convince her to 'faget it'.
No! She must not heed their advice. She must defend her right and she must demand justice from the JCF and from the Jamaican Government that committed to ensuring the human rights of every woman when it ratified the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
While this individual police officer has to take a stance, she must not do so alone. All the agencies who are funded by taxpayers' dollars to defend women's right are obligated to take on this issue now, not tomorrow.
Also, all those in the non-governmental sector who purport to defend the cause of women must go the extra mile on this matter.
Other women in other societies are standing up against the daily indignities against women and children and they have not ceased in their struggle against their unique form of oppression.
Women power
For instance, the fall 2007 edition of Ms magazine detailed how, in western Pennsylvania, the women community rose up in protest when the Pittsburgh news media reported that three of the four city police officers who were recently promoted had histories of "alleged domestic violence".
One had hit his wife but the charges were dropped because she failed to appear in court. Another had struck his daughter, but she dropped the charges after his promotion. The third was not charged even though the screams of his wife were reported by the neighbours.
Predictably, the top brass of the Pittsburgh Police Department and the mayor and other power brokers in the City Council tried to defend the promotion of these violent men, but they soon learnt what 'woman power' meant when a coalition of civic and political groups demanded a hearing into the levels of incidents of domestic violence in the police force. The embarrassment to the top brass in the force and in City Hall was the first step to a call for dramatic changes in the Pittsburgh police force.
Stories such as these remind us that women must ensure that they have the courage to stand up against every form of gender-based discrimination in all sectors of our various societies.
Courage needed
Here in Jamaica, the Mark Titus story, titled 'Raped on duty', chronicles the painful experience of a woman who could have remained silent but found the courage to come forward. Her experience challenges us to find the pool of courage to stand by her.
In a publication titled Women of Courage, writer Katherine Martin defined courage as a quality that is sometimes fragile and vulnerable, but it is a quality that comes about when we take a deep look into our souls and sense the stillness in our divinity.
Such an understanding of courage is needed if women are to continue their struggle against the entrenched patriarchal values that reside in the deep recesses of all the institutions that impact on our lives.
Indeed, the militaristic organisations of church and state remain as the last bastions of resistance to the equality rights of women. The JCF is no exception.
With or without a citizens charter, the experiences of women within this institution do not give this generation of young women the hope they need to believe that they will come into a future free from fear. This is a moment for courageous women to take a stance and ensure that this issue is not another 'nine-day wonder'.
Rape is not about sex, but power.- File
Glenda P. Simms is a consultant on gender issues. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.
