The Spring Village man who says his arm was broken when a police officer struck him with a truncheon in Kingstown says that he is planning to take legal action against the officer.
Dwight Phillips told iWitness News on Tuesday that he is in conversation with lawyer Grant Connell about a possible lawsuit.
The decision to pursue a civil suit comes in the wake of a decision by prosecuting authorities to take over and discontinue two charges brought against Phillips.
Phillips says that Police Constable Clint Da Souza broke his arm in the presence of his (Phillips’) son at the Cruise Ship Terminal in Kingstown last week Monday, Aug. 14.
Da Souza then proceeded to charge Phillips, a 42-year-old father of four students, with resisting arrest and assaulting him.
When he appeared in court last week Tuesday, Phillips pleaded not guilty to the charge and was scheduled to return to court on Oct. 23, but the charges against him have since been discontinued.
Phillips, a cook who also sells juices to businesses and offices in Kingstown, had lamented, to iWitness News, the impact of his injury on his family’s income.
He again noted that point on Tuesday, telling iWitness News that his cook shop, 3D’s Delight, located at No. 10 Chinatown, Kingstown, remains closed since the incident.
He told iWitness News that his wife, who works along with him in the cook shop, where he is the cook, decided to take seven days work with one of the groups cleaning the roadside so that she could be near their home.
Phillips said that the partial cast on his arm was completed on Monday, but he is in a lot of pain.
He said he tried to sell some juice in Kingstown on Monday, but could not venture out again on Tuesday because of the pain.
He said he is scheduled to see the doctor again on Sept. 4, at which time a decision will be made about whether the broken bone should be pinned to aid in its healing.
“I am just here at home lying down,” Phillips told iWitness News.
The injury has come as the man and his wife are preparing their children to return to school in September.
Their son, who graduated from St. Martin’s Secondary School in June, passed seven of the eight CXC subjects that he wrote, Phillips said.
“I tell you the honest truth, I am very, very confused,” Phillips told iWitness News, adding that he is wondering how he would be able to finance his son’s entrance into the Technical Division of the Community College.
“It is very, very hard. Confusing,” Phillips told iWitness News
Police officers can use a minimum amount of force depending on the curcumstances.
The law recognises that there are situations where police officers may be required to use force. The primary responsibility for using force rests with individual officers, who are answerable to the law.
Recourse to physical force against a person which has not been made necessary by his or her own conduct is in principle an infringement of Human Rights see; ECHR Article 3.
ECHR Article 8 protects, among other things, the right to physical integrity and is capable of protecting individuals against forms of ill-treatment which do not reach the high threshold of ECHR Article 3.
1/ would the use of force have a lawful objective (eg, the prevention of injury to others or damage to property, or the effecting of a lawful arrest) and, if so, how immediate and grave is the threat posed?
2/ are there any means, short of the use of force, capable of attaining the lawful objective identified?
3/ having regard to the nature and gravity of the threat, and the potential for adverse consequences to arise from the use of force (including the risk of escalation and the exposure of others to harm) what is the minimum level of force required to attain the objective identified, and would the use of that level of force be proportionate or excessive?
To wack a mans arm with a trungeon and therein breaking it cannot be lawful in the curcumstances presented.
Had the police officer hit the man on the head with the force he hit is arm, he would be dead. This police officer should be sent home and an enquiry take place.
I hope the Human Rights people are watching carefully