Wine of astonishment

WE FULLY support the plea made by Commissioner of Police Erla Christopher-Harewood for members of the public to co-operate with the police not just over the coming days but also in the long-run in the fight against crime.

At the same time, we are astonished by the tone and poor phrasing of Ms Christopher-Harewood’s further invocation to “scantily dressed ladies” to “desist from dancing, wining and gyrating on my officers.”

That invocation continues the trend of public officials showing no sensitivity to the gender tropes that have played into misogyny in this country.

The top cop put the matter in terms of professionalism and respect. But unless she has been living under a rock, she must also be aware of the rising discourse on consent within Carnival, a discourse informed by a global reckoning with how women are treated and with the #MeToo movement.

If policemen, in Ms Christopher-Harewood’s mind, stand to be affronted by being wined upon while on duty, imagine what it is like for the thousands of women who, every Carnival, experience unwanted advances from men, whether drunken or otherwise, who deem them to be “fair game.”

Everybody knows Carnival is as much a social experience as it is a cultural one in which people, sometimes complete strangers, come together on the streets and in fetes to celebrate and enjoy themselves. In fact, it is this element of surprise and this encountering of the new that some find pleasurable.

But there is always, quite literally, a line that should not be crossed, particularly if someone does not wish to receive a spontaneous advance.

“Is just a little wine,” is no longer a good enough excuse for ignoring someone’s desire to be left alone.

It is interesting that this country’s first woman Commissioner of Police, in her first ever Carnival media conference, has chosen to focus on women and their conduct and has, by placing emphasis on the appearance of these women, fed into the culture that holds the way one dresses signifies something about the wearer or else inevitably triggers a certain kind of reaction.

This, after the outcry provoked by the recently issued Carnival regulations which attempt to outlaw “lewd” and “offensive” songs and “gestures which are immoral.”

Aside from the implicit value judgments coded into such terms, their vagueness mean they may well turn out to be unenforceable in a court if subject to challenge, as has occurred in recent cases throughout the Commonwealth involving the use of similar language.

Ultimately, there is a difference between, as a matter of public policy, measures to ensure the safety of all and attempting to police morality.

The police would do well to focus on the former, not the latter.