The Tribune

By  RASHAD ROLLE and EARYEL BOWLEG

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said yesterday the attack on a woman who was beaten in the street and struck by a car shown in a viral video that has sparked outrage around the country is “completely unacceptable”.

Police confirmed they have a man in custody in connection with the incident, which took place on Key West Street on Monday afternoon.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters said yesterday the woman in the video is in critical condition.

The video shows a man dragging and beating the woman—who was holding a young child at the beginning of the attack—in the street before running her over with his car. Police said it was a domestic dispute.

“...The videos that I saw with a woman being beaten and then ran over at high speed, I would call that more than a domestic dispute,” Mr Munroe told reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting.

“You think of a domestic dispute as a row, that’s much more than a row. There is some concern that as people are locked up together tensions can flare but at the moment the country is open. Regardless of what stresses of life (are) upsetting you, there is no excuse for that kind of violence towards each other. I’m not interested in any excuse about money problems, about the woman troubling you, about her rowing, you just walk away.

“This is some of what I’ve spoken about which is what we have to address ourselves, our behaviour. That’s completely, completely unacceptable. When I was raised I was raised that you didn’t hit women. That’s much more than hitting a woman, so we have to address again as I say the socialisation of persons. We have to address the anger that seems to be rampant in this country but that’s completely unacceptable.”

CCTV footage of Monday’s incident showed a man dragging a woman towards his car and hitting her as she lies in the street while clutching a young child before bystanders intervened. A bystander removed the child from the woman’s arms and the woman remained on the ground.

The assailant then drove away before returning a few seconds later, hitting the woman with his car as bystanders scrambled to get out of the way. One woman tried unsuccessfully to drag the woman out of the car’s path.

Police said after the man hit the woman with his car, he dragged her body a short distance before he crashed into a parked car.

The assailant’s car overturned and he exited the vehicle and tried to flee the scene but was restrained by bystanders who held him until police arrived.

The video prompted widespread outrage yesterday.

Transport and Housing Minister Jobeth Colbey Davis said on Twitter: “I just saw the video! What is going on? I am completely outraged! This type of treatment must be condemned by all. Women, men, boys and girls, we must join our voices in the fight against domestic violence. So blatant, my goodness.”

THE founder of a local women’s rights group called for stiffer penalties for perpetrators who hurt women and children.

Prodesta Moore, president and founder of Women United, told The Tribune she is “outraged” and in “disbelief”.

 “I can’t even express the words from just seeing the video,” she said. “I’m in disbelief when I saw that, to see how this man dragged this woman out and then in turn got his car then hit her.”

Ms Moore said laws protecting women and children need to be strengthened.

 “….When we talk about petitioning the government to bring back the death penalty people don’t understand quite necessary and it’s because of this now people don’t understand and it’s because of this now people are getting away with these kind of violence against our children, the reason why they’re doing it because the laws are not stiff enough. The penalty is not severe enough to fit the crime.”

She added: “… We need to define what’s the worst of the worst because when we continue to allow people to get away and get a slap on the wrist but just in the system for periods of time. Talk about ten years, come out and monitoring them – it’s not sufficient.

 “…We have to make sure the sentencing fits the crime. We have to make sure that these cases are dealt with swiftly. So we’re hoping that we can have the sexual offenders court because we don’t know the story behind whatever has happened. We don’t know if it’s a sexual offence or just domestic violence… We have a gender-based violence bill that we’re trying to get passed.”

 Capital punishment is on the country’s law books, however, it has not been carried out since 2000.

 A 2006 decision by the London-based Privy Council, The Bahamas’ highest court of appeal, quashed the country’s mandatory death penalty for murder convicts, which it said was unconstitutional.

 In 2011, the Privy Council also said the death penalty should only be given in cases where the offence falls into the category of the “worst of the worst.”

 That same year, the Ingraham administration made changes to the Penal Code to set out the criteria for the types of murders that would attract a discretionary death penalty after conviction.

• The headline for this story has now been altered from the print edition.