(Trinidad Guardian) Several police officers who were recorded trying to subdue two men at a fete at Queen’s Park Savannah yesterday morning may find themselves facing both disciplinary and criminal charges.
This as the Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) has started an investigation into the actions of the officers, which many social media users dubbed “excessive force.”
In several videos posted on social media yesterday from the Jam Naked event at QPS, the uniformed officers were seen scuffling with two men.
In one of the video clips, which was one minute and 26 seconds long, one officer is seen trying to urge one of the men to leave the area.
“It have no go home, I going in the station,” the man is heard shouting.
He also asks for the “number” of the officer giving the instruction.
When another civilian tried to drag him away from the police, the man strikes him and turns again to the officer.
Someone off-camera can be heard saying, “You kick the (expletive) police, you look for that boy.”
Another person says, “Nah, he look for that, how you go run into the (expletive) police with a jump kick.”
At the end of that clip, one man is seen being placed into the trunk of a marked police vehicle.
Another seven-second-long clip shows both men being placed on the ground.
A third clip, which was 19 seconds long, shows both men struggling with the police.
One officer holds what appears to be pepper spray in his hand, aiming it in the direction of one of the suspects.
It was this video that raised the ire of social media users as officers can be seen seemingly kicking one of the suspects after he is subdued and thrown to the ground. One of the kicks was to the man’s head.
Several people off-camera can be heard clapping while others shout, “Oh god, oh god!”
A police report from the incident identified two men, one said to be a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Regiment.
The report states between 6.45 and 7.30 am on Sunday, two senior officers who were attending the event alerted their counterparts from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) who were on duty nearby that a patron trying to enter the venue had become aggressive with security personnel.
The report states the man’s ticket was not “scanning” and he was not being allowed to enter the venue.
Four IATF officers approached the man but the report states the man ran through the crowd and “jump-kicked” one officer and then spat in the officer’s face.
The report states that the man and another were eventually subdued and taken to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital for treatment.
Officers said while at the hospital, one of the suspects escaped while the other was taken to the St Clair Police Station to be processed for charges of assault and resisting arrest.
Guardian Media contacted the Public Information Officer of the TTPS, ASP Sheridon Hill for comment yesterday.
Hill said while video clips posted to social media often do not capture an incident in its entirety, the PSB has already assigned an investigator to look into the matter.
“Video clips that circulate on social media hardly ever capture the entire event, the surrounding circumstances but that does not give anybody, including police officers, the right to behave in a particular way, the right not to follow procedures and if police officers are found to be in breach of the law, both disciplinary and criminal, they will be dealt with according to law,” Hill said.
He said police officers are not exempt from the same laws they try to uphold. Hill said just last week, two officers who are suspected of breaking the law were charged and brought before a magistrate for their alleged wrongdoing.
“The law is there for everybody, from the highest office holder in the land, down to the common man on the street, we are there to enforce the law but we also have to abide by the law, so we are subject to the law like everyone else. All the officers looking on, they will understand that if you breach the law, the law will apply to you like everyone else,” he said.
Hill said although some officers break the law, the majority of the officers in the TTPS abide by it and follow proper procedures when carrying out their duties.
