The Public Relations Department of the Police Force has ordered an investigation into an incident on Saturday in which a plain clothes, unidentified police officer reportedly entered the property of a journalist with a gun drawn, allegedly with the intention of shooting the reporter’s dog.
The journalist, Lyf Compton, a Gibson Corner resident, spoke of the incident in a post on Facebook on Saturday, hours after the incident.
Compton said that some technicians who came to his house to install the Internet accidentally left a small gate open, causing his Japanese Akita of get out of the fenced property.
“One of my neighbours came up to my gate while I was putting the dog back in. He had a cutlass and told me that my dog killed six of his puppies. I told him seeing that he had approached with a cutlass that I wouldn’t deal with him so I think he should call the police,” Compton said in the post.
He said that about an hour later, while he was dressing and feeding his 4-year-old son, he heard someone calling and looked through a window and saw the neighbour with another guy standing outside the front gate.
“The property is fully fenced. I only knew the neighbour. I told him from through the window that I would be there in a minute because I was doing something.
“I stopped dealing with my son and came into the front yard at which time I saw a man in a striped shirt and jeans pants at the side of the house moving to the lower part of the property with a firearm cocked and extended in front him.
“I asked who he was because I thought the neighbour had brought one his friends to shoot me. He said he wasn’t a friend but a police officer.
“I said well you just can’t come onto a locked property with a firearm and no crime was committed here so you have to leave.
“He told me he had come to shoot my dog and he could come onto any property at any time without a warrant and the only time he needs a warrant is to search,” Compton said.
“I asked him what was the crime and why he had a gun drawn and he said he came to shoot the dog. I ask him for what but he turned to his colleague and said, ‘Man leh we walk with the man, he outta place,’
Compton further said in the Facebook post.
“After a few heated words and a lot of ignorant talk from the officer, the two officers eventually left after admitting no crime was committed and it was in fact a civil matter.”
Compton expressed displeasure with the officers’ handling of the situation.
“At no point, any one showed me an ID. They both said that they did nothing wrong by entering the property and left saying they could have shot my dog if they wanted. The dog was in a cage at the back of the property so it is as if he was making his way to the cage to shoot the dog inside as it had bit other dogs. Bit other dogs, not persons. The officer also pointed the gun in my direction as two three-month-old puppies were behind me and he said that he would shoot them too.
“The matter has since been reported to the Police Public Relations Department,” Compton said.
A policeman in Saint Vincent with a gun is as dangerous as a criminal with a gun, especially when they think they are above the law and accountable to no one.
I blame the minister in charge of the police Ralph Gonsalves. He promised us he would be hard on crime, instead he has condoned the employment of convicted felons in the police force. We must never forget how three police officers were convicted of a crime against a youth in custody and instead of outing them, they were re-employed.
Remember the saying “we will hunt them down until they exist no more”, that is ULP policy.
I would also warn the young man to watch his back because someone will possibly turn on the spite and malice now he has had the guts to report these officers.
This country is simply out of control.