– at schools athletics event
By Cathy Richards
Residents of Linden are calling on Commissioner of Police Henry Greene to take stern action against a female police rank who physically abused a nine-year-old boy on Friday, while in another fracas a police officer was prevented from making an arrest.
The incidents occurred at the final day of a three-day schools’ athletics championship at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground (MSC) where in excess of 4,000 students, teachers, parents and other spectators had gathered to root for their favourite school or athlete.
According to eyewitnesses, the child was standing on a bottle just behind the female police officer when he slipped and his knee hit her in the back. The child apologized, but continued his childish behaviour. He then accidentally hit the police officer for a second time in the back when he was pushed by someone who was attempting to make their way through the crowd. “This time, she [the police officer] turned and grab he by he shirt all he buttons buss off,” the witness said. “She put one lash on he knee and further put one slap in he and mek he face swell right away.” This was supported by many other witnesses.
The eyewitnesses said things got out of hand when the officer was confronted by public-spirited persons and a special constable who was on the scene. According to them, the policewoman said, in an angry outburst, ‘y’all go to de station if y’all want nah. Dey ain’t gon do me nothing because me and meh husband is police and police don’t go against police.’
The special constable then took the child by the hand and led him to the Mackenzie Police Station which was close by. The child who was clad in his school’s uniform was crying uncontrollably and the right side of his face was swollen. At the time his parents were not at the sports club but he was in the company of his siblings.
The mother of the child said she got scared when she received a telephone call compelling her to report to the Mackenzie Police Station and rushed down there. She said when she learnt from her child what had transpired she burst into tears.
She said that police officers at the station begged her to make up the story but she told them she needed to return home and take the night to calm herself and she would have returned to the station yesterday morning to deal with the issue in a more focused, informed environment.
She said she was pleased with the manner in which Officer-in-Charge Herman Timmerman dealt with her and said that he promised to thoroughly investigate the matter. Timmerman was overheard comforting the child and attempting to rebuild the trust in police officers.
Meanwhile, the witnesses said that as the report was being made by the special constable, the policewoman tried to formulate a story against the special constable, claiming that she was hit by her.
“Dis ain’t gon end so easy,” a close relative of the child said. “De commissioner of police gat to get involved in this and ensure that this child gets justice. We don’t want this officer staying in this area, she must be stripped of her uniform and she must be put before the court of law.”
In another incident that occurred at the MSC ground during the athletics championships, a scuffle ensued between a police officer and a young man when the officer attempted to arrest him for a crime allegedly committed at the facility. It was reported that they scuffled because the young man was resisting arrest. According to a close relative of the young man he noticed the fight between the two and it appeared as if his relative was being taken advantage of. “I didn’t know it was a policeman because the police was in civilian clothes I just see them fight and I realize that my lil relative was being manhandled and so I jumped in and parted them,” said the man.
He said he only learnt the depth of the matter when he was arrested and placed on the bench at the Mackenzie Police Station. “All he had to say to me was back off I am a police officer and I would have left him to do his thing. It is not like I wanted to condone whatever wrong my relative was doing I just thought he was being advantaged,” he added.
The man was released from police custody when he explained his side of the story to the officer-in-charge.
Later the same day a young athlete of a Wismar Primary School approached a member of the Linden Station Management Committee who was at the MSC ground at the time. He was bound with a police hand cuff on his left hand and taken to the Mackenzie Police Station. En route he attempted to free his hand but the cuff gripped him tighter and tighter to the extent that he broke down into tears and when released by the police an impression and bruise marks were left on his hand.
Apparently, a plain clothes officer had dropped the cuff while attempting to arrest another child and he had made off with it. This newspaper learnt that the child put the cuff on himself and others but did not lock it.
The athletics championship came to an end shortly after 5 pm. Organizers said that this was so designed to ensure that students returned to their homes before dark. However this was not the case for most.
Scores of students, mainly those not dressed in their school’s uniforms converged along Republic Avenue to “bus a lime” as one parent said. However, unlike previous years, businesses along the avenue were not granted permission to put out their music sets which usually fuels long hours of sporting and alcohol drinking by students.
But like the old saying goes ‘the stricter the government, the wiser the population’, a group men equipped with old barrels, milk tins and other instruments made up a band and positioned themselves at the round-the-town bus park and entertained the school children. This went on for over an hour before police arrived and put an end to it.
Another hour elapsed and when the police returned to the scene scores of school-aged children were still liming. They were all spoken to by the police and were admonished to return to their homes.
However, when the officers later returned to the scene they found the children still liming. Over one dozen of them between the ages of 13 and 18 years old were taken into police custody and their parents and guardians were summoned to get them.
Friday’s occurrences between the police and civilians further challenged the work of the recently formed Linden Station Management Committee which was set up through the offices of the Commissioner of Police Henry Greene with the mandate to foster a better relationship between the police and civilians.
