Back in the land of the living

Towards the end of last September, Gladys Brown-Campbell hit the headlines twice on the same day — for, on the face of it, vastly different reasons.

The morning papers of September 29 celebrated the fact that the day before, the detective sergeant was the first policewoman to graduate from the Norman Manley Law School and had won two major prizes at the graduation ceremony.

But what was more compelling about Brown-Campbell’s story was the long, difficult trek it had been from high school drop-out and teenage mother to police officer and law school graduate.

Later in the day, the story was about how close Brown-Campbell had come to losing her life to a knife-wielding robber as she left an ATM at a bank in downtown Kingston.

But get over the immediate contrasts of the two events — celebration and pain — and there is a common thread running between them. Both, essentially, are stories about Brown-Campbell’s courage.

Brown-Campbell had seen the headlines, heard the congratulations and was still a wee bit flushed from the previous day’s event, including receipt of the Gifford, Thompson and Bright, and the Pauline Elaine Miller Memorial prizes. After all, she had come a long way and there was much to look forward to.

It was a warm afternoon, but the heat was not constricting. Not today.

Suddenly, Brown-Campbell was being jerked into an insane reality.

“I had just exited a money machine and was almost at my destination — the Police Credit Union — when I was attacked,” she recounted last week. “I was talking on my cell phone when I heard a voice say, ‘hey gal, gimme di money’.

“I did not get to respond to the request because the man started stabbing me, immediately. After the first serious blow landed, I put up my hand to stave off further blows as well as to disarm him.

“However, he kept stabbing at me, so I had to crouch over in a defensive position to prevent stabs to delicate organs. He did not give me a chance to give him the money.”

Despite a valiant fight, Brown-Campbell was seriously wounded.

Her attacker had run off with some of the money she dropped during the scuffle. Several persons apparently witnessed the attack, but nobody did anything. In fact, Brown-Campbell’s mobile phone was snatched by another man who ran off with it.

“I was rescued by the sound of a police siren,” she said. “My attacker must have heard it and gotten scared. He fled the scene, immediately.”

Fortunately, an employee of the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), Mr Kensel Morris, was passing by and took her in his car to the hospital. She was admitted in serious, though stable, condition.

Her attack sparked outrage.

In Parliament, government and Opposition members condemned the attack.

“It is sad that people at the scene just stood by and watched,” lamented Local Government and Sport Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

The incident helped to focus attention on the often aloof response by Jamaicans to crime, and prompted Simpson Miller to remark that it was a problem to be solved not only by officialdom but by “all of us”.

Unlike so many other victims of violent crime, Brown-Campbell’s attacker has been caught and is before the court for felonious wounding and robbery with aggravation.

Brown-Campbell herself in making good progress in recovery. Having been released from hospital, she is recuperating at home. The support of family, friends, colleagues, the Calvary Evangelistic Church of God where she worships and public officials aided her recovery.

She said: “Had I not had that support, I am sure that I would not have recovered in the time that I did. I drew strength from the many persons who visited me at the hospital, sent best wishes and support… I was also grateful for the show of support from the minister of justice, A J Nicholson and the minister of national security, Peter Phillips.”

According to Brown-Campbell, she is now looking forward to her new job at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to which she has been seconded from the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN).

“I am unable to say what the full scope of my responsibilities will be as that is still being defined,” she said. “However, I do know that I will be heavily scrutinised as I am a guinea pig.

“I hope that by this unique opportunity, I will demonstrate that there is no need for attorneys, who are also members of the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force), to leave the Force to practise law. I am ready and able to tackle the challenges ahead.”

Brown-Campbell attributes her determination to succeed to her strong Christian faith and disappointments she faced early in life.

When she became pregnant in school, for instance, she vowed that would not be the end of the road.

“My life today is to ensure that I keep that promise,” she said. “As a matter of fact, while battling with my

assailant in the middle of Port Royal Street and during the time when I was admitted to the hospital, I never thought of anything but survival. I knew that I was not going to die, as there was much that I needed to do. So I prayed that God would strengthen me and He did.”

It is not the first time that she has prayed for survival. In fact, her conversion to born-again Christianity came out of a similar situation many years ago.

Then, she was a patient at the Kingston Public Hospital.

Said Brown-Campbell: “While I was in the hospital, I collapsed on my way to the bathroom where I was found by a nurse. I was rushed to the operating theatre. On the way there, I overheard a member of the medical team saying that, I was not going to make it.

“I knew that I had to survive and I prayed to God for deliverance. I promised that if He saved my life then I would serve Him till my dying day.

“I believe that I am making good on that promise.”

Her life, she is certain, is a testimony of the greatness of God.

“He was my comforter in some of my most trying times and, one thing is for sure, He does not give up on His children,” she said.

When she is not directly doing police work. Brown-Campbell does many other things.

“I transform into motivational speaker, mediator, chorister and quasi-counsellor,” she said, giving her dimpled smile. “I also do this (quasi-counselling) when I am in uniform.”

She sings with her church choir and directs the group.

“She is a role model for many young people, both in the church and others in her community, as well as her family,” said best friend of many years, Sandra.

Brown-Campbell believes that giving back is important.

“I have been the beneficiary of many acts of kindness and feel it my duty to offer, where possible, similar acts of generosity towards the people with whom I come in contact,” she explained. “This is my mission and what motivates me.”

With all the attention that Brown-Campbell has received recently, one important fact about her has hardly emerged: that she is a published author of an important paper called Patriarchy in the Jamaica Constabulary Force: Its Impact on Gender Equality. It is a 1998 document that was part of a final-year research project at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona.

Said Brown-Campbell: “The study looked at whether women in the JCF were really being held back by the fact that it was a male-dominated institution. I found out that there are many opportunities for development and self-improvement for women in the police force. It was for the women to avail themselves of these opportunities.

“I was pleasantly surprised when I was encouraged to publish the manuscript by Dr Victor Chang, then head of the Department of Literatures in English, UWI, Mona and one of my supervisors, Dr Patricia Mohammed, who was also head of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at UWI.”

She was hesitant at first but was further persuaded by Professor Carolyn Cooper, who had also supervised the thesis. Along with support from the Jamaica Police Federation and members of UWI, Gladys’ final-year research paper went from “partial requirement for the fulfilment of the Bachelor of Arts in Literature in English” to published text, courtesy of the UWI, Canoe Press.

When she is not studying, or out gathering intelligence, this cop-turned-lawyer explains that she may be found on an athletic pitch running laps, or in the gym doing strength work. She is a long-time participant in UWI and JCF sporting events and has a number of medals to prove it.

She represented the JCF at the 1998 Miami Classics in Florida and won five medals as well as well as the Most Valuable Player award.

“Getting involved in sports is important to keeping the mind and body fit and healthy. I would recommend it to all people, particularly women, to get actively involved in exercising, especially as it is so tempting to spend much time in front the television, or computer,” she said. “I am itching to get back onto the playing-field.”

Brown-Campbell has no regrets about her chosen career.

“As a matter of fact, there are many of my colleagues to whom I owe a debt of gratitude as they indicated through their actions, as well as their support for my various efforts that the police are interested in total development,” she said.

On her future and her new role of lawyer, she said: “I will focus much of my energy on learning as much as I can in this area. I will also finish my house, which I am building from the ground up and relax and live a little.

I am looking forward to the days, weeks and months ahead… I am back in the land of the living.”