Wiping away the tears, Laventille resident Patricia Mitchell remembered her son was not at home for Christmas. He wasn't away on business. She claimed her first born Hugh Mitchell, 32, had been innocently felled by police bullets in October 2007.
"He was never bad. He never had a girlfriend. He was always a good child. "My wish is for crime to be alleviated in the community. I lost a son innocently. I demand for 2009 that they police these people who are committing crimes 24/7." Patricia Mitchell made these comment on Tuesday while Member of Parliament for Laventille East/Morvant Donna Cox delivered hampers to 150 needy people at her constituency office on Eastern Main Road in Barataria.
Sharing the burden of a lost child, was another resident Gemma Charles of Mon Repos. "I lost my son Joel (on April 5, 2007). The police shoot up the pub by Bamboo Street and he died. He had just come from work and went in there. "This is my second Christmas without my darling." The pain cuts deeper at Christmas.
"I miss him for Christmas. He would buy all kinds of things. He would give gifts to everybody. He was real nice." Charles was even more remorseful at the tender age in which his life was snuffed out. While her 83-year-old mother Lorna Jack is still there for her, she still can't accept her son's demise. Casting her eyes in despair, she said, "He was just 22. He had so many more years ahead."
Cox–counselling,parenting for Laventille
In her brief remarks, Cox had made reference to the "hurting mothers...many who had lost children." She said. "There are programmes that have been put in place. We are doing a measure of counselling." Cox also spoke of plans to introduce parenting programmes to the community. "We are going to be implementing some parenting programmes for mothers and fathers." Cox said they had discovered a problem in which "some of the fathers cannot come out once they are in the gangs.
"We are going to carry some of the training programmes to the community." At the same time, Cox said if she had to issue a general call to her constituents for 2009, it would be to appeal to them "to return to God."