Police Commissioner (ag) Leroy Brumell yesterday said that Superintendent of Police Errol Watts can remain on the job and be allowed to attend overseas training programmes since the criminal charges brought against him in relation to last year’s rubber bullet shooting of APNU protestors were filed privately and not by the police.
“[Those] were private criminal charges so he can still perform his full duties,” Brumell said in response to questions from his newspaper as to why he has not been interdicted from duty pending the outcome of the court case.
The controversial officer made the news again last week after he was spotted in the mining town of Linden where there has been unrest over the last few weeks. Observers had questioned why Watts who was jointly charged with Senior Superintendant Linden Alves was still on the job. It was pointed out that the custom was to interdict the officer from duty pending the outcome of the matter.
Brumell told Stabroek News that in a case like this you are sent on your own bail. He said that as long as the charge was filed privately, the effect would not be the same as if it had been brought by the police.
In the meantime, he said, Watts and the other officers can be allowed to perform their full duties and are still entitled to training as serving policemen.
Meanwhile a legal source held to the same position as Brumell. The source pointed out that this sort of charge has the same weight as a charge brought against the state, but not the same merit. It was explained to this newspaper that police do investigate their own from time to time and the fact that they felt they should not be charged is an indication that there was no case against them.
Further, the legal source expressed the view that the charges against the duo were politically motivated, and that the two should remain on the job.
Based on the accounts, after leaving the Square of the Revolution on December 6 last, a large group of protestors, who had not been granted permission for a march, were met at Hadfield Street by about half a dozen armed policemen.
The police ranks were heard over a loud speaker urging the crowd to disperse, but their warnings were not heeded and shots were later fired.
The crowd scattered in different directions while some of the injured, who were left lying on the ground, were picked up and rushed to the hospital. APNU supporters were at the time protesting over the failure to reconcile the statements of poll from the November 28 election.
The police force later said the shooting was unfortunate, while the Ministry of Home Affairs made it clear that it had not instructed the use of rubber bullets against protesters and also called on the police top brass to discuss the issue, pointing out that a junior rank had given the authorization to fire.
Among those who sustained pellet wounds during the incident, were PNCR-1G MP Joan Baveghems, 69; APNU youth leader James Bond, former army chief-of-staff Edward Collins and a seven-year-old boy.
Later Watts was pointed out as the officer who had given the order to fire. In January he was transferred from A Division to D Division and promoted to second in charge.
Bond, Collins, Bruce Whatley, Abyana Joseph, Fitzroy Corlette, David Hinds, Keyno Henry, Clifton Newman, Winston Greaves, Hamilton Holder, Casey Duncan and Adrianna Moses were all charged with taking part in an illegal procession. However the jointly-charged defendants pleaded not guilty to this charge which was later dismissed by the presiding magistrate for want of prosecution as well as the absence of a file and a prosecutor.
It was shortly after this that the criminal charges were filed privately against the two ranks which saw them making a court appearance in June on five counts of unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The police last Tuesday sought to clarify Watts’ presence in the mining town saying that he was not ordered out or pulled from operations as reported in the media.
In their statement, the police said that the officerwas temporarily attached to ‘E&F’ Division and is performing duties in the maintenance of law and order in the entire Linden community. He is not assigned to any particular part of Linden as is being touted in the media, the police said, adding that during operations on Sunday August 12, he had arrested a man at Wismar, Linden, on whose premises a number of cannabis sativa plants (marijuana) were found under cultivation.
In was in relation to this that he travelled out of Linden to escort the exhibit.
The release stated too that Watts at the time was making preparations to leave the country by this weekend to participate in an overseas training programme.
