A couple have filed an official complaint with police alleging that they were brutalised by officers last week “for no reason”.
They came to The Tribune “outraged” yesterday, claiming that the basic human rights of two law-abiding citizens were grossly violated.
Keyo Smith and Malika Jacques said they were walking on Balfour Avenue last Thursday. As they approached Palm Beach Street, a plainclothed police officer drove his police vehicle onto the sidewalk, almost hitting them.
The two said they held on to each other, but they toppled over, still shocked at what was happening.
Miss Jacques said three police officers jumped out of the car, while one aggressively pushed and pulled on her, telling her she was “locked up”.
“My foot was caught underneath a big rock and I was holding onto Keyo. They were grabbing me and telling me to let him go,” she said.
She said she was “terrified” as they “pulled, tugged, and then kicked” both of them, tearing her clothes in the process. She said she was still in shock over the fact that the man had driven up onto the sidewalk, while Mr Smith was struggling to free himself to assist her.
A motorcycle cop then passed, said Miss Jacques, and he was the only one out of four officers who was wearing a uniform.
Miss Jacques claimed that the officer quickly dismounted his bike and told the other officers: “Y’all jokin”. She claimed he then used his foot to “mash” her in her side while Mr Smith told the officers he thought she was pregnant.
“Pregnant, I don’t care!” the couple claimed the officer retorted.
“When I was finally able to get up, I staggered to the police car and I was told that I passed out there,” said Miss Jacques.
Mr Smith said he asked the officers to take them to the hospital, and they said they would.
“One officer said, ‘OK, but you still lock up’. So we went with the officers, and she passed out again on the drive,” said Mr Smith.
“They said they would take us to the hospital, but they never did. They kept telling us that we ‘lock up’, but they never read us any rights or placed handcuffs on us.”
Miss Jacques said they were taken to the Grove police station.
She claimed that one officer told her: “Get your a** out of this car.” She said she asked the officer not to speak to her in that manner because she hadn’t spoken to him with any disrespect.
When she arrived at the station, Miss Jacques asked to make a telephone call to get help from a doctor: It was then that she was told that she would be charged with disorderly behaviour.
She said she was still trying to find out what she had been brought to the station for in the first place.
After spending the night and the following day in the police station, both Mr Smith and Miss Jacques said that on Friday evening, they were released on police bail feeling tired, in pain, hungry, and distressed.
Mr Smith claimed that while he was in the holding cell, he saw police put a plastic bag over the head of a 17-year-old boy, beat him, and throw him in a garbage can.
The couple said the only thing they could see remotely related to their incident, was the fact that about half an hour before they were beaten by police, they witnessed the same officer who was driving, pull a gun on a man he had knocked down.
They claimed the man was hit on Balfour Avenue and landed in front of Glad Tidings Church. They said he was bleeding, and a crowd, including themselves, had gathered to see what had happened. They said they witnessed the officer, whose name, number and rank they recorded, curse at the man’s sister and mother, chasing them from the scene, and not allowing them to see their loved one as he lay on the ground with a gun pointed at him.
The whole incident, said Miss Jacques, has left her both emotionally and physically hurt.
“I have never been in trouble with the law,” she said. “They took advantage of us. They made me feel like a criminal or like an animal; not like a human being. It hurt me because I had the utmost respect for police officers before now. It was appalling to be kicked and shoved when I have never been treated like that in my life.”
Mr Smith pointed to article six and seven of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law; and all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection from the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”
Supt John Ferguson of the complaints unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force confirmed that the couple did make a complaint. He gave his assurance that the matter would be properly investigated.
By A FELICITY INGRAHAM, Tribune Staff Reporter
