YESTERDAY, ON PAGE 3, THE STAR carried two stories about court cases in which men were brought to book for assaulting women.
In one case it was a 46-year-old man kicking and punching his ex-girlfriend as she walked with her fiancé in the community; in the other a 37-year-old man stabbed his girlfriend on the grounds of the Spanish Town court's office. Ironically, she had gone there to have a restraining order taken out on him.
It is not uncommon to see stories such as these in this newspaper; sometimes the situation escalates to murder, even going further to the classic murder-suicide scenario.
If these cases are an indication of what takes place in relationships, what is accepted as the norm between men and women who claim to have some sort of feelings for each other, then we are in serious trouble. Because people who are tussling and fighting with each other are simply creating children who will accept such behaviour, and worse, as the way to relate with their partners.
There is, of course, no way that relationships can be policed. We have often been told that domestic matters account for a significant number of the persons who are killed in Jamaica each year and no police force in the world can prevent that. However, we can reinforce in schools, in churches, in youth clubs, in any social setting outside the home, that men and women fighting and beating up each other is not normal and must not be accepted.
Furthermore, we need to emphasise to young people that people who are in an intimate relationship do not own the other person. If and when it comes to an end, feelings will be hurt, but there is no reason to hurt the other person.
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