The senior citizen who was allegedly assaulted by members of the Guyana Police Force on Tuesday when they tried to take her to the police station after they showed up seeking her grandson, says she has not been offered an apology or compensation and will seek legal redress.
Norma Clarke, 76, of 26 Sussex and Saffon streets, had told Stabroek News that officers had grabbed and pulled her after claiming that two plain clothes officers had seen her grandson smoking a joint.
The woman said the police told her that her grandson ran into her place when he was confronted by them. Clarke said she told the officers that her grandson was not in her house and they then told her that she would have to go to the police station. “I told them that I was not going anywhere, because is not me they want, I ain’t do nothing wrong,” Clarke told this newspaper.
Yesterday, two days after the ordeal, the senior citizen said, not one officer had visited her home or telephoned her to issue an apology or offer compensation for her lamp which was damaged during the incident.
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Police Force said no information on the alleged assault was received and the best person to relay information on the incident would be Commander of ‘A’ Division Clifton Hicken. However, calls to his number went unanswered.
Clarke, who was left shaken by the ordeal and suffers from high blood pressure, told this newspaper that she will have to visit the hospital since she is now experiencing severe pain in her wrists and shoulders, resulting from the ‘tug-of-war’. The woman said that members of her ACDA group have encouraged her to pursue the assault meted out to her by the police. Clarke said that after she receives a medical report, she will seek legal advice on the matter. She had described the incident as uncalled for.
