WHENEVER a Laventille resident, especially a young Black man, is murdered and his mother is heard in the media denying police or other reports that he was involved in drugs or was otherwise a bad boy, there are always voices in unison condemning her for defending another criminal.

They refute her claim that he was a good boy, insisting that she was only saying that because she was his mother, and some even insist that it is time such mothers talk the truth and let the world know that their son was really bad.

Many in society further insist that the time has come when such mothers must stop sheltering their criminal children and the police are praised for gunning them down.

In effect, as far as some people are concerned, all Laventille youths who are gunned down are bad boys.

Dr. EDDIE KOURY

ANNETTE RAHAEL

Not one of them is good.

It doesn’t matter if it were a case of mistaken identity or if he was gunned down because he was liming at the wrong place at the wrong time.

It doesn’t matter if he was just dropping off his girlfriend and a stray bullet hit him.

“What he was doing in the area?” will be one of the responses.

“He went to make a drug drop; he went to check his criminal friends.

“Don’t worry with him; we always suspected he was involved in something; you eh see the nice car he was driving.

“And look how he always had money.”

So Laventille, Maloney, Morvant etc. moms mourning for their gunned down sons are all condemned as hypocrites by those in society, some of who now believe in the credo that the best Black youth is a dead one and all Syrians are good.

The mourning moms are slammed for crying crocodile tears.

“She damn well enjoyed the money he made from selling drugs and robbing people,” is another comment.

“She well knew he was a bandit when she was spending the money.”

The end result is that in almost every instance that a young Black man is gunned down, as far as society is concerned, and many in the media, too, his death is justified.

Different strokes apply though, when “other” people are murdered.

For instance, Dr. Eddie Koury.

A decent, upstanding, bright Syrian, who was senselessly murdered.

Outright condemnation for his untimely death from almost every respectable stratum of the society is the order of the day.

And rightly so, may I add.

How dare they gun down a businessman!

A Syrian businessman at that!

A member of the Who’s Who club!

Then the reports started coming that Koury may have been involved in illegal drugs.

That he was part and parcel of the $700 million bungled drug deal on Monos Island.

And, as such, his murder has some drug links, was the allegation.

Methinks we can forget the kidnap part of the incident since it seems strange that someone would be kidnapped and then murdered almost instantly, as was the case with Dr. Koury.

And his Colombian link!

Of course, the “big business” media, especially, went out off their way to defend Koury and to deny that he went to Colombia to deal in drugs.

The Express even gloated with a front page exclusive: Columbian trip was to sell Protox insecticide -- No Koury Drug Link.

Juxtapose that with a Laventille businessman being gunned down and the information comes out that he had visited Colombia … or Libya.

Will the same Express be happy to shout at the top of its front page that he went to Colombia or Libya to invite investment for the Hill?

Bet your life that the initial story that he went to Libya to buy guns or to Colombia for drugs will be dailies’ big story, full stop.

So Annette Rahael, aunt of Dr. Koury described as “nonsense” the rumours of a Colombian drug link in the death of the businessman.

A Laventille mom would have made a similar statement.

According to the Express, speaking on TV6’s Morning Edition in an interview in the continuing CCN “Unite Against Crime” campaign, Rahael said: “This thing about a hit is just really traumatising an already traumatised family.

“You are blaming the victims.

“Eddie was living in Trinidad and Tobago (meaning, he was doing TnT a favour?), trying to make a decent living, raising his family and was brutally murdered.”

She added: “This is a 38-year-old man who has been ripped from his family.

“He has two small children under the age of four.

“He was a scholar; an island scholar.

“A graduate from world-class universities; he had Vision 20/20 down before they knew what it was.”

Barring the comment about “living in TnT” and the scholar part, which is probably what must make his murder different in the eyes of some, the same sentiments are also usually expressed by moms from Laventille, whose sons are senselessly murdered.

In fact, sometimes, those from Laventille who are murdered leave four, five, six hungry mouths behind.

In case you think otherwise, I feel nothing but sympathy for the Koury family.

I feel angry about his murder. I feel angry about all murders, if you must know.

Death, any death, moreso when it is unexpected and especially when it is murder, is really traumatising.

And no one can feel it as hard as the victim’s immediate family.

And that’s the point.

Koury’s aunt is defending him, come what may.

As far as she is concerned, he did no wrong.

She probably even believes he could do no wrong.

And that is her right to believe and think that.

All this talk about Koury dealing in drugs etc. is absolute rubbish.

His was a kidnap gone wrong, sour, she actually said.

So why is it that only Koury’s relatives and not Laventille’s moms, too, who must have the untrammeled right to dispel “nasty rumours” about their loved ones after they are killed?

The people are saying, what is good for Koury’s relative is also good for Laventille moms.

Vice versa, if it is not good for Laventille moms, it must also not be good for the Kourys.

Not because a man may have had a past criminal record or was a suspect means he deserves to be murdered.

Similarly, not because a man was bright, a scholar maybe, and even an upstanding businessman, means he would not be involved in criminal activities, probably on the “down low”.

Equity must be the order of the day.