Father forgives taxi driver who beat his son
The anger that Clinton Smith felt when he saw the video of his 15-year-old son, Ricardo Smith, being beaten by a taxi man has worn off. Now he wants to make sure something like that never happens again. Through his campaign, “Stop, Think, and Walk Away,” Smith wants to help Jamaicans learn better conflict resolution skills.
“I realised that a lot of time we react before we think, and then we end up regretting what we do. It is easy for us to retaliate when we think that we’ve been wrongly accused. But it takes a person of virtue to think, and to rationalise and think of what will happen when we react,” Smith told THE STAR.
“If someone doesn’t make us realise that we need to stop and think for a second, then we’re just going to continue being vengeful,” he added.
Smith said he is currently trying to get sponsors on board to support the campaign, which will target everyone, and will include T-shirts, stickers, creating animated videos and training sessions in high schools.
DEAL WITH ISSUES
“I would like to now go in schools, and talk about it, talk about how to deal with issues in school when it comes to bullying, peer pressure,” he said.
“My objective is not to make money. My objective is to make people be aware, and make sure that I follow through with what I’ve been teaching my son,” he said.
Police recently arrested the taxi driver who was seen in a video flogging the boy on the streets of Spanish Town, St Catherine. It is unclear if he has been charged, but Smith said he is no longer interested in having him prosecuted.
He said that he has forgiven the taxi driver.
“Nobody is perfect, everybody makes mistakes. For me to now preach one thing and then do another thing, I would be a hypocrite. I spoke to him, and he sounded very sincere, and he’s now realised what comes with doing something like that,” he said.