Caught on camera abusing disabled man in wheelchair
By Susan Mohammed (Express).COPS A DISGRACEA VIDEO has emerged on Facebook showing a policeman slapping a man in a wheelchair, and a policewoman pushing his wheelchair downhill along a busy street.
People have expressed outrage over the callousness of the actions of the police officers, and want action to be taken.
The Express has learnt acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams and National Security Minister Gary Griffith have been shown the video, and the case is being investigated.
Southern Division Senior Supt Cecil Santana has described the actions of the people in the video as a disgrace to the Police Service.
The video, which is less than two minutes long, has attracted the attention of thousands of viewers as by yesterday afternoon there were almost 28,000 views and it had been shared by 2,270 people.
One of the persons who commented on the video on Facebook was a person fitting the description of one of the police officers seen in the video.
That person commented: “The man cussing ppl and want to spit on the gentleman wen d man tell him bout it but that’s police brutality.”
Griffith said he knew of the video and the matter was being investigated.
He said, “I am aware that the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is fully aware of the situation. Also, the Commissioner of Police and the matter is being investigated. So until the investigation is completed it will be inappropriate for me to make any statement at this time.”
A prominent attorney also commented on social media: “Look, I too do not know and do not care what the guy in the wheelchair did. This is outrageous!!!! Slapping a guy in a wheelchair!! Police officers do not have the right to abuse citizens...this is assault and battery.
“Whatever he may have done (it appears that he is being accused of cursing an officer) this treatment is against the law. The officer was not defending himself and not under any perceivable threat. Who is this officer?? He should be charged!!! We need to do something about the calibre of officers that we have. This must certainly be a big part of why crime continues to be out of control.”
Santana said yesterday the police officers are to be investigated immediately.
“The Commissioner (of Police) has instructed that the Professional Standards Bureau begins investigations into the matter immediately,” said Santana.
The Express was told by another senior officer that the officers in the video are attached to the Rapid Response Unit in Mon Repos, and that both appeared to be off duty.
“If he was on duty he would have to be in police uniform since he is not a detective,” the senior police officer said, adding that the woman police officer appeared to be working on an “extra duty”.
The Express was also told they are both Special Reserve Police officers.
Santana said: “I want to assure you that no stone will be left unturned and the appropriate action will be taken against those officers.”
Santana said he had seen the video. “It was a disgrace to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. Those are not the kind of officers that we want in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service,” he said.
EMPLOYEE: Wheelchair man abused meThe video was shot on High Street, San Fernando, around 4 p.m. last Saturday, and when the Express visited the area yesterday, several vendors and store employees said they had seen the man, and had witnessed the incident.
The wheelchair-bound man could not be located.
Most of those persons said the man should not have been beaten by the police officers.
A store employee who witnessed the incident said the man earlier that day left the San Fernando General Hospital and had a catheter and other apparatus hanging from the wheelchair.
“He was just showing the woman police officer monkey face and gave her the middle-finger. I think they treated him unjustly. The situation could have been handled better than that.”
Jean Allsop, an employee of Chicken Unlimited, said she was taking out the garbage when the man became abusive to her.
“He asked me if we had any fish broth and when I told him no he started to use racial words and cuss. The man was carrying on and on,” said Allsop.
“But I would say the police had no right to hit him. But as officers, they should have known better to deal with him. Nobody deserves to be treated like that,” she said.
Allsop’s co-worker, Vonetta Mars, said: “He was pelting money at us. People would pick up the money and hand him, and he would pelt it at us. He was also pulling people’s hands and harassing some ladies. He was drunk. A man asked him his name and he cuss him too.”
A vendor who did not identify himself also said the man appeared to be under the influence of a drug. “He was using racial slurs, spitting and cussing people. I went to him and told him do not get on like that. When the police came he spit on the policewoman. He deserve more than that. He was lucky somebody didn’t kick him down from the wheelchair.”
THE VIDEO The video begins with the policewoman telling the man: “Move your wheelchair and go from here for me, please.”
As she unhooks the brakes on sides of wheelchair, she says: “You don’t know who you are dealing with, you know.”
She then turns the wheelchair around and says to the man: “Go down the road. Push your wheelchair and go down the road. If you playing mad, I more mad.”
She then pushes him off into the street and the wheelchair rolled until it hit a vehicle parked at the roadside.
The person shooting the video walks towards the man and advises him to “drive back up” the street.
The man in the wheelchair turns it around and pushes himself a short distance before he is approached by a man who identifies himself as a police officer.
“It don’t take me nothing to buss some f** slap on you although you are in a wheelchair,” says the policeman.
“What you cussing the police for? I ask you a question, boy.”
The man in the wheelchair and the policeman exchange words before the policeman slaps him across his head and face.
The man, who said he was a police officer, continues to ask what he was cussing the police for, and slaps him again.
The wheelchair-bound man does not retaliate against the policeman, but rubs his hand over his head.
The video then has audio of a woman, who said: “He must be could probably well walk you know. But they does put themselves in wheelchair and come out here and terrorise people.”
The policeman then slaps the man in the wheelchair again and walks off.
BULLY COPS
By VASHTEE ACHIBAR.
December 30 2014A FIRESTORM of condemnation has been levelled at two police officers — from within their own ranks and from the general public — after they brutally assaulted a disabled man who sat in a wheelchair on lower High Street in San Fernando, in full view of passers by on Saturday afternoon.
Officers of the Professional Standards Bureau were appointed to investigate the assault were yesterday searching San Fernando and environs for the unnamed disabled man to record a statment.
A passerby who witnessed the exchange recorded the incident and uploaded the video to several social network websites, with the video going viral in minutes and prompting many comments, most of which were critical of the officers’ conduct.
The officers have been identified as two SRPs (Special Reserve Police) from the Mon Repos Police Station.
Following the video upload and the avalanche of negative public reaction, Ag Commissoner of Police Stephen Williams appointed a team from the Professional Standards Bureau headed by ACP Harrikrishen Baldeo to investigate the incident.
Head of Police Southern Division Snr Supt Cecil Santana last evening confirmed being contacted by ACP South, Central and South Western Donald Denoon who relayed that Commissioner Williams wanted an immediate and thorough investigation.
Santana said the two officers have already been identified as belonging to the Rapid Response Unit based at Mon Repos police Station. He described their conduct as disgraceful, adding, “the Service cannot condone that kind of action and these kinds of officers are what we don’t need in the ranks.” He assured, “no stone would be left unturned with respect to the investigation and what necessary action has to be taken, would be taken.”
When Newsday yesterday visited lower High Street where the incident occurred, emotions were still high. Some persons who said they witnessed the incident on Saturday strongly condemned the officers’ actions and called for justice to be done.
An eyewitness related that the attack began after the wheelchair-bound man was observed stretching out his hand to beg. This prompted a WPC in full police uniform to scold the disabled man, telling him he was getting disability by the State and should not be begging on the road.
The eyewitness who asked not to be identified said the disabled man cursed the officer causing her to become enraged. In the video, the female officer is seen disengaging the hand brake mechanism on the wheelchair.
She is then heard saying, “if you feel you mad, then I more mad” as she pushed the wheelchair down the slight incline of High Street and letting it go. In doing so, the officer herself narrowly escaped being hit by an oncoming van. The wheelchair proceeded down the road for a few feet before bumping into a car parked at the side of the road and coming to a halt. Eyewitnesses yesterday asked if the disabled man had been struck by an oncoming vehicle, what would have been the officers’ reaction.
The person who recorded the incident is heard using expletives as he described what was taking place. He then egged on the disabled man to go back up the street. As the disabled man did so, he was met by an oncoming policeman dressed in plainclothes.
The man pulled out a wallet, identified himself to the disabled man as an officer and then asked him why did he curse the woman police officer. The officer warned the disabled man that being in a wheelchair would not prevent him from getting a slap. The male officer, in the presence of several onlookers, proceeded to slap the disabled man at least three times, with two of the slaps being so vicious, so powerful as to rock the man’s head forcefully to the side. The male officer then walked off.
An eyewitness who said he was extremely disturbed by the beating told Newsday the disabled man wore a colostomy bag which was hanging from the wheelchair and one of the slaps from the officer caused urine to squirt out of the bag.
Business people in the area claimed the male officer in question is well-known to them as he is in the habit of harassing them about parking when vehicles arrive to offload goods to the stores.
David Manning, son of former prime minister and outgoing San Fernando East MP Patrick Manning, was among those who strongly condemned the officers’ actions stating on his Facebook page, “The Police act tough in the streets to earn respect, but the true measure of earning (respect) is performance.
Tapping up retards (sic) in wheelchairs hardly earns respect in light of a 400 plus annual murder rate and not a single suspect apprehended and not a single case solved. Any officer laying his hands on me trying to score points will certainly get an assault charge.”
Another Facebook user, Donna Ramnarine wrote: “People forget life is a boomerang and what goes around comes around. This is a human being. Somebody’s brother, uncle, father, nephew that these cops beating. There are ways to deal with this. I understand he just came out of the hospital...God is watching.”
Meanwhile, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) in a news release said, “it is aware of a video that has been circulating on social media of alleged impropriety of persons who appear to be officers of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).” The Authority stated that, “pursuant to the functions of the Police Complaints Authority Act”, it has initiated an independent investigation into the incident and is calling for any witnesses or persons with information on the incident to kindly contact the PCA at the following numbers: 800-2PCA/800-2722/627-4383, 627-4386 or info@pca.org.tt.”
Public Affairs Officer of the TT Police Service Supt Joanne Archie strongly condemned the officers’ actions. “We condemn what has happened. We would not condone such behaviour by officers. The video sent to me was communicated and forwarded to the Ag CoP (Stephen Williams) about mid-morning today (yesterday). He (Williams) immediately directed that the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) initiate an investigation,” Archie said.
Meanwhile, the Police Social and Welfare Association added its voice to criticisms describing the video posting as “worrisome” and calling for a speedy investigation into the matter.
General Secretary of the association Insp Michael Seales said while the man may have insulted the police, the officers’ response was unnecessary.
“We have established that summary offences have been committed by the man but the exchange between the officer and the man, doesn’t warrant that type of interaction by the officer, in terms of what would have happened to the man, based on what has gone viral.
“We are very concerned and hope this is one of the investigations that the Commissioner completes as quickly as possible to the satisfaction of the citizens who would have witnessed the incident,” Seales said.
San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein said the corporation was very saddened at the incident .
He noted that while it was reasonable to expect protection from violence and crime by all police officers, this indeed was “an isolated and unfortunate incident” which needs to be fully investigated.
VIDEOhttps://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=770685426344288&set=vb.679696105443221&type=2&theater
