A boy, allegedly caught with others removing car parts, was beaten and then hogtied by Parika residents yesterday, prompting concern and outrage at his treatment.
“If you see how dem had this boy in deh police vehicle tie up like a iguana, it hurt me real bad because I is a mother,” one of several outraged women told Stabroek News yesterday.
This newspaper was shown a photograph of the boy—who appeared to be between the ages of 14 and 15—in the back of a van, lying on his stomach; his hands were tied behind his back while his legs were also bound together with rope. The child’s eyes appeared to be swollen.
The women said he was crying out in pain. “Is like he couldn’t really talk and it sound like he saying ‘help me, help’ but is was like a groan and how the thing really hurt me, is a child and dem shoulda tek he to the hospital right away,” another woman who contacted this newspaper by telephone said.
When contacted, Commander of ‘D’ Division Balram Persaud told Stabroek News that he was aware that some persons were beaten after they were caught stealing but he said as far as he was aware no child was involved. According to Persaud, early yesterday morning several persons were beaten by irate Parika residents after they were caught stealing vehicle parts. He explained that the issue is an ongoing one and that the arrested persons, who hail from the East Coast, are known to the police on the West Coast of Demerara.
Persaud said that as recent as two months ago the persons were charged in West Demerara for stealing and they are out on bail. They were recently caught in the Windsor Forest area again and the police had to rescue them from another thrashing. He said that two of the persons who were beaten were arrested and the third was hospitalized.
The third person is suspected to be the boy but checks by this newspaper at the Georgetown Public Hospital and the West Demerara Regional Hospital revealed that no one was taken to the institutions by the police. Parika residents said that the child was not known in the area and they were informed that he may have come from Mahaica.
When asked if any of the persons who carried out the beatings was arrested, Persaud that they cannot be arrested since they were at the time defending their properties.
‘Nah beat he like a dog’
Speaking with Stabroek News, one of the women, most of them Parika market vendors, said that it was about 8am yesterday morning when they observed the child at the back of a police van that was proceeding to the station. The woman said they immediately became involved, since the child appeared to have been badly beaten. A man who was at the back of the van with the child informed them that he was beaten. “He tell we that dem catch he thiefing and dem beat he and dat no strange people suppose to be in the area,” the woman said.
She said they started to protest at the way the child was tied up as it was obvious he was in discomfort and a lot of pain. “Babe, leh me tell you, I really feel hurt and offended. These things mustn’t happen. Even if dem catch he thiefing, dem shoulda call deh police, nah beat he like a dog,” one of the woman said.
They said they followed the van to the police station and insisted that the ropes be removed from the child’s hands and feet and that he be taken for medical treatment. “Leh me tell you, I behave like a mad woman in deh station because no human being must be treated like dat and I tell dem that dem must lock up deh man and carry the child to the hospital,” another woman said.
She said that the man who admitted to beating the child was subsequently placed in the lock-ups but about an hour later they observed him walking through the market. “He walk pass we smiling and when I went to deh station and find out dem tell me that some big one from Leonora Police Station call and tell dem loose deh man because he ent do nothing wrong.
You believe dah? Dem don’t even know if deh child would die but deh just loose deh man,” the woman noted. “If you see how dah child get beat, me skin start growing I couldn’t stand up and watch deh child, dem really beat he,” another said.
It is unclear whether the police have involved the child protection authorities in this matter.
