Acid and Aftermath: When Love Turns Lethal in Jamaica

Another black mark. Another man dead. Another boy scarred for life. This time, it wasn’t a gunshot echoing down Waltham Park Road, it was acid. A silent, burning weapon poured over a sleeping man and his teenage son. Forty-year-old Christopher Clarke is now dead. His son is in hospital, likely wondering if sleep will ever feel safe again.

The accused? Clarke’s own girlfriend. According to police reports, a dispute spiraled into chemical violence. Not fists. Not even a knife. Acid. A substance so vicious, it leaves not just scars, but reminders, daily, visible, unrelenting reminders, of someone else’s rage.

Jamaica knows domestic violence. We’ve seen the headlines. We’ve written the stories. But we often tell them with a gendered tilt: “Man beats woman,” “Boyfriend murders girlfriend,” “Him too wicked.” But what happens when the tables turn? When the woman is the perpetrator and the man is the victim?

It’s uncomfortable. We fidget. We joke. We say, “Him muss do har supm.” But that sort of thinking is part of the problem. Violence has no gender. Pain nuh pick side.

Christopher Clarke is dead, and we owe him more than a whisper. He wasn’t perfect — no relationship is without conflict. But how did we get to a place where acid is a tool of vengeance? How did we allow anger to become so common that premeditated acts like this barely shock us anymore?

· This case unearths several issues Jamaicans don’t like to talk about:

· Domestic violence against men. It’s real. It exists. But few men report it because shame keeps them silent.

· The normalization of rage in relationships. We joke about “toxic love” like it’s a badge of honour, but toxicity kills. Literally.

· Access to corrosive substances. In a country where acid is so easily obtainable, why are regulations so slack?

And what of the boy? He’s collateral damage in an adult war. Burned. Scarred. Traumatized. How will he view love, women, safety? Who will guide his healing?

The woman at the centre of this tragedy is in custody. The justice system will take its course. But beyond the court, we as a society must reckon with ourselves. If love can lead to murder, if anger simmers just below the surface of so many homes, then we are sitting on a ticking bomb. Acid today, gunshot tomorrow.

We need to stop romanticizing conflict. Stop excusing emotional warfare. And yes, start taking violence against men as seriously as we do against women. Human beings are not punching bags, or acid targets, just because love went sour.

Christopher Clarke is gone. His son’s life is forever changed. Let’s not wait until another tragedy burns itself into our headlines to confront the truth: violence doesn’t wear a gender, but its scars are always personal.