Few would deny, though, that money can extend life and, chances are, if Esmin Green or her family had had sufficient money to access private health care for her, chances are she would have lived longer. Green, a psychiatric patient, died at the Kings County Hospital Centre in Brooklyn, New York, on June 19, 2008, when she collapsed after being in a waiting room for nearly 24 hours. She got no assistance, even as she struggled to get up.
And, as The Gleaner reported yesterday, money can't buy her life, in the sense that Green's family is still waiting for a full investigation into her death, even after settling for US$2 million in their wrongful death lawsuit against the city and a number of persons losing their jobs over the tragic occurrence.
They want to know how this could have been allowed to happen and, clearly, financial compensation is bringing them no satisfaction.
New York may be physically far removed (though looming large in the migratory Jamaican consciousness) from Jamaica, but the principle that 'money can't buy life', as expressed in the stance of Esmin Green's family, is applicable in a situation that has become ordinary to us. In yesterday's Gleaner, it was also reported that once again Amnesty International has raised concerns about the high rate of police killings in Jamaica.
unlawful
The report read: "The rate of police killings fell (in 2008) but remained high, with 222 people allegedly killed by police. Many occurred in circumstances suggesting that they were unlawful, despite frequent police claims that they were a result of shoot-outs with criminal gangs."
While police officers are routinely taken off front-line duty in cases where there are controversial killings by the lawmen, there is precious little by way of pursuit to conviction, much less compensation. We suspect (and if the routine protests after some of those police killings are anything to go by, it is definitely so) that there is a great deal of rancour against the police over these disputed killings.
And we suggest that if we are to make a dent in, much less break the back of our horrendous levels of violence, the populace must see that the police are being held to the same strictures of the law as they are. There must be, then, a sense that the law works among those who are sworn to uphold it if it is to work among the general public that is supposedly bound by it.
To this end, a clear and speedy process of investigating claims of violent excess by the police is required, with the public getting the satisfaction of justice being done before even thinking of compensation.
For money can't buy back the life of the dead, but a process of justice can show that their lives mattered. And that is invaluable.
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