A woman is urging police officers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to speak to people respectfully, even if they think that the person might have violated the law.
The 28-year-old woman made the plea after an interaction with a very senior police officer in Kingstown recently while she was travelling in a minivan shortly after 7 a.m.
“It is just that he does not know how to speak to people. It is like they have ranks and they are higher than you, they feel like they can talk to you anyhow and you are not supposed to respond,” she told iWitness News.
“There were people in the station, both police officers and civilians who said … ‘He doesn’t know how to speak to people so you need to get your story across. You have radio stations, you have news’,” she said, of her decision to reach out to the media.
The woman, who asked not to be named in this report, told iWitness News that she was a passenger in a van in Kingstown that had travelled along Middle Street from Higginson to Melville Street.
When the van got to Melville Street across from Ace Hardware where vendors sell coconut, a police officer was there and the driver asked permission to pick up passengers.
The police officer allowed him to do so. After taking up the passengers, the van began to turn right onto Lower Middle Street and about that same time, a private vehicle came by, rolled down the window and the senior officer, who was inside, told the driver to reverse the vehicle and go in the other direction.
The woman said the van driver did so and then turned left and began travelling along Bay Street in the direction of PeppaKorn supermarket as he had indicated that he was going back to Little Tokyo.
“The same officer who stopped him said, ‘I told you to go to the barracks’, which he did not. But he said that he did say that down the road. So, we eventually went to the barracks. The whole van — passengers, driver.”
The woman said that when they got to the Central Police Station, the senior police officer told a junior rank to arrest the driver and take the van into custody.
“Other people were talking but he said he only heard me. When we were coming out, I took a good look at him. … I was trying to ask him but he was being a bit rude. I simply said, ‘But the guy did not do anything wrong.’
“And he was like, ‘Shut your arse and get out the station before I throw you in a cell.’ So, I said, ‘But way de arse! Just like that?’
“And it’s just so he called the person at the sentry to put me on the bench. I said, ‘Just like that? I need a call. And what is my offence? You can’t just lock me up like that. No offence was read to me or anything.’”
The woman told iWitness News that the sentry “actually tried to wild me. You know how if you are a criminal they would try to grab you to put you in the cell? He actually tried but then I told him I know my rights and I didn’t do anything wrong so I will go freely. I am not a criminal.”
She said that after she sat on the bench the police took her phone and searched her bag and told her she could not get a call.
She told iWitness News that the senior police officer returned about half an hour later and told her that she had interrupted him and she could face a six-month jail term.
The senior rank further told her that if she were jailed for her alleged offence he would sleep well.
“The other officer who was there was telling me to apologise but I didn’t. To me, I was only wrong because I said the guy did nothing wrong. He said I didn’t know the traffic rules,” the woman said.
“If I didn’t say anything, things might have ended differently. I felt that I was right but it just came off wrong,” she further said.
“Apparently, to them you are not supposed to say anything when they speak. Because even when I was trying to ask the question about the broken line, the other guy was trying to tell me — because there was another officer with him — is best I just shut my mouth and listen and not interrupt the guy. So, I was like, ‘Am I not supposed to ask questions. They were like, ‘No.’ I am supposed to keep quiet and listen.”
The woman told iWitness News that the senior officer later told officers at the station that she could leave when the van driver was leaving.
“But while I was there, they were telling me I should apologise to him and that I don’t look sorry. But I did nothing wrong so why should I look sorry or say sorry,” the woman told iWitness News.
She said she had no idea what they were suggesting that she apologise for because they did not say.
“All they said was that I should apologise. I did not apologise but they told me I could go,” the woman said, adding that the police released her after they had ticketed the van driver.
“They took me there after seven and I never left until after 8,” she said.
“All of us are the same equal humans. Not because you have a badge and a higher rank means that you can talk down and look down on anybody,” she told iWitness News of her interaction with the senior police officer.
One word ……masters ….. It’s a shame that people in a uniform think they are better than others, my only thing is so many cursing on road and they don’t get arrested or detained ??? Alas it’s this ladies side of the incident and of course the so called senior officer with the pressed uniform and cane will say different ?? Thing is nuff people know what this lady is saying in true…. Talk to people how you expect to be spoken to, take the house and field …… Behaviour out of the equistion….
Then again will this ever change amongst our people ???
Arrested after stating that a person didnt do anything wrong to deserve arrest!? Aren’t fellow citizens supposed to speak out against wrong/perceived wrong? What about a citizen’s right to freedom of speech and freedom generally? It has been reported “Court awards $34,200 to prison officer for wrongful arrest, detention”
Thanks d is what police do. It’s a problem all over the world. They think because they have a badge and a gun they can do anything. If the van driver committed a crime he could have been ticketed on scene but that’s the way tyrants behave.
These days, when someone is in a uniform or they have whatever position they think they are better off than you, they can speak to you and treat you as if you are not a human being like them, it’s all over in other departments that behaviour is happening, , it’s like a SHOW OFF ATTITUDE . Praise the Lord that we are all mortals and our days are numbered .
Gunman killing down d place an dem police wasting time on innocent civilians.
Miss 28 year old passenger, I am going to be the exception, by not criticizing the senior police officer. Miss 28 year old passenger, you are wrong for inferring with a police officer man or woman when they are discharging their duties. You should have waited until you have gone in front of a magistrate in court as a witness to say the van driver didn’t do anything wrong. It is not your prerogative to make that judgment call to the senior police officer. I think you have got some nerves sticking your neck out for some van driver. In this country of SVG van drivers don’t have a good reputation of obeying traffic laws.
Let me tell you, a story, one day I was in Kingstown doing some shopping at the then P.H. Veira supermarket, so when I finished shopping, I came outside, and try to cross the street to Little Tokyo Bus Stop. I began walking across the street on the white lines with one of my hand out stretched signaling to oncoming traffic I was crossing to Little Tokyo Bus Stop. When all of a sudden a van came from somewhere and almost ran me over. Believe me, he didn’t even stop, he just kept going. Lucky for me, a police vehicle was driving behind the van the whole time, and they saw everything that happened, and they pulled the van over and directed driver to go the barracks area, where they charged him. And guess what? On my way over to the barracks area, I met the said van driver begging the police officer to have mercy on him. And you know what? I was just in time to tell the police officer, to have no mercy on him. Then I purposefully, said to the police officer, he almost ran me over, at those white crossing to Little Tokyo Bus Stop. Believe it or not, the police are there to keep us safe as passengers or pedestrians on the road.
You think that officers are Gods? You want to take away people’s rights to talk? Interference is a physical thing not words.
So, who do you think is God? Men are Gods and Women are Goddesses. The young woman shouldn’t have of gotten herself in trouble over a van driver. In this country, van drivers are not known for obeying SVG’s traffic laws. Furthermore, the young woman, had gotten herself into trouble, because she had gotten cheeky with the senior police officer. Believe it or not, who do you think, have the power, here in this country? It is the police, like it or not.
One never hear Police solve a murder or any other crime, it is always cruel abuse being metered out on innocent civilians or some other trivial matter being handled heavy handedly; and then it is the same Police who become Judges in the same cases.