Hogtied teen in custody over theft

-family denied access

The teenager who was severely beaten and hogtied after he was among a group allegedly caught stealing vehicle parts is in custody at the La Grange Police Station but members of his family yesterday said they have been denied access to him.

The boy, said to be 16, was among four persons who were beaten by Parika residents on Thursday over the alleged theft of vehicle parts and Commander of ‘D’ Division Balram Persaud said yesterday that the boy would be charged and placed before the court shortly.

“Them ask me if I want get lock up and dat how he in police custody and I can’t see he,” the teen’s brother told Stabroek News yesterday, after the family was denied permission to see him.

Relatives expressed anger at the manner the child was treated by the police and residents of Parika. They alleged that an uncle of the child, who is also in custody, was also badly beaten. Two family members, who saw the teen’s uncle on Thursday at the Brickdam Police Station after he was seen by doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), said the man’s face was swollen. “He eye bulge out and he ears split,” one of them said.

The boy trussed up in the vehicle.

A photograph of the child, who was placed in the back of a police van on Thursday with his hands and feet bound, was provided to this newspaper by some angry residents of Parika who observed his poor state. The residents, mostly women who are vendors at the Parika market, said that they were upset that the police were transporting the child in that manner and had demanded that he be taken for medical attention. They had also said a man who was in the vehicle at the time had admitted beating the child and others but he was later released after being held by police.

Commander Persaud told Stabroek News that the men were well-known in the area for stealing vehicle parts and that some of them were before the court for similar charges. When asked if any of the persons who had beaten the men were going to be arrested, he had indicated that the persons at the time were protecting their properties and could not be arrested.

Yesterday, Persaud maintained the position and said that the teen and others would be charged and placed before the court shortly. He said all the residents were doing at the time was executing a citizen’s arrest and it was during that process that the men resisted and sustained injuries. “These people were charged before with similar offences,” Persaud reiterated.

Contacted yesterday, Director of the Child Care and Protection Agency Ann Greene told Stabroek News that initial checks by an officer revealed that the child may be of a criminally-responsible age. However, she said that the boy or any of the other detainees should not be beaten and neither should he have been tied up in the manner that he was on Thursday.

Attempting to
commit a felony

Relatives of the teen said that he was held along with two of his uncles and another man who worked for them. They were all being held at different stations. They said they were told that the men would be charged with attempting to commit a felony on Monday.

At the teen’s Annandale address, male relatives, including the grandfather who is popularly known as `Saltfish’ were discussing the issue. They said they were worried that the child, who lives at another location with his parents, was not allowed not speak to them. They are hoping to secure bail for him and the other uncle who was beaten on Monday so that they can be seen by a doctor. They said that they have hired a lawyer. “Why deh must beat dem like dah? Dem ent catch dem with anything, anybody could be accuse of attempting to do something. But these people beat dem, dem commit a crime and deh police ent charge dem,” one relative said.

He said that the police need to explain why the residents who thrashed the men have not been charged.

When told that the men were said to be known in the area and that they are facing similar charges, the relative said that only one of the men is before the courts in the West Demerara area and he is on bail. “How could they speculate that dem man went to thief and on what basis? The police and people always blaming and picking up people because dem was involve in something before,” he stated.

Asked what the men were doing in the Parika area at the time since they lived in Annandale, their relatives said that they had gone to purchase “produce” from the Parika area. A relative explained that the men are known in the area because they would make regular trips for the sole purpose of purchasing produce. The produce would then be sold from a canter truck, which was parked in their yard at the time, to wholesale vendors at the Bourda Market. The men had gone with a wagon to make the purchase and had parked it and were waiting for the market to open. “The police saying deh men known to defend dem people who beat dem up,” he said, though he added that if the men were indeed caught in the act of stealing from the residents, then he would have understood the actions of the residents.

Meanwhile, there is no love loss between the family and some residents of Annandale who told Stabroek News yesterday that some members of the family are known thieves.

Stabroek News was at the time enquiring about the direction of the family’s residence when some residents gathered to vent their frustration at the men’s activities. The residents alleged that the family may have police connections because whenever they are arrested they are most times released on bail shortly after. “These people are heavy criminals” and they need to be prosecuted, one angry resident said.

He questioned what the police force is doing to keep the men off the streets as persons are afraid of them. One man alleged that his sheep were stolen by some members of the family who had the audacity to remove the stomachs of the sheep in the pen before fleeing with their carcasses. “I want to put me neck on the block dat dem man will be out on bail next week,” one man said, while warning this newspaper against visiting the family and urged that care be exercised around them. The residents expressed no sorrow for the teen.

When these allegations were put to the family of the teen, a relative admitted that some of the male relatives have had brushes with the law and that two of “Salt fish” grandsons were in jail.

“Leh me tell you if people lost a tub or a sheet is this yard dem coming to because we had some lil boys who use to thief to buy drugs and smoke,” the relative said.

He said that the residents would make reports to the police who would be unable to make arrests because there is no evidence implicating any family member. “Look the other day a man building a house and he lass some sacks of cement and he say is this man grandsons and is when I tell he dat dem two boys in jail dat he had to turn to somebody else. And he catch the man and where he sell the cement and everything,” the relative said.

He said that the residents are “misrepresenting” the family, whom he described as hard workers.