In response to concerns about its perceived heavy-handedness in the eviction of the Hill Foot squatters, the Guyana Police Force has stated that its mandate is to maintain law and order and if squatters are behaving disorderly and damaging public and private property and injuring people, the police will engage.
Commander of Regional Division 4 ‘B’ Senior Superintendent Mahendra Singh told Stabroek News during a telephone interview on Friday that the police neither bulldozed nor are they demolishing crews, but are law enforcement officials.
Singh emphasised that the police were present at Hill Foot, Soesdyke Highway, to ensure the maintenance of law and order. He further explained that the police engaged when illegal occupants of land began behaving disorderly, damaging public and private property and causing injury to people.
Singh informed that the police do not enforce court orders for eviction, or act on them, and noted that orders of the court are made based on applications. He declared that anything else concerning the eviction had already been aired publicly, but he was willing to provide more feedback today when he is equipped with more information.
On Thursday, residents of the area had told Stabroek News that neither the police nor the landowner, Lawrence Almeen, informed them about the demolition of their property on Wednesday and some squatters who begged for time to find somewhere to go, were given a three-day reprieve. They all said the demolition of their homes came as a shock to them.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the eviction exercise, one woman was left nursing three pellet wounds to her hand and back as a result of the police firing on her, in what she claimed, was an effort to evict her from her home.
Another person is in police custody after a scuffle with the police to save his home. And a pregnant woman related to this publication that the excavator almost brought down the house with her inside while she was trying to grab her belongings.
Adreana Torres, related that after her family was greeted by the police and Almeen on Wednesday to have the property demolished, she rushed into the house to grab as many of her belongings as she could, while her sister begged the police not to demolish the home with her inside because she was pregnant. She further explained that her brother and other men around intervened to stop them from breaking down the home with her inside, and the police allegedly placed a gun to her brother’s head. The excavator eventually began to pull the zinc sheeting off the roof of the house while they continued to save as many of their belongings as they could. Torres informed that no one was hurt, but said she wanted justice for her and her family’s alleged mistreatment.
Alicia Reets, a 29-year-old single parent of two children, recalled that on Wednesday around 4 pm, Almeen and the police arrived and demolished her one-storey wooden home and didn’t say anything as to why they were doing it. She alleged that the police shot at her while she was protesting as a result of the demolition of her home, which caused her to stop protesting.
Radica Kamal, a single parent of two children, said she tried to stop the demolition of her home and was shot in her hand and back with rubber bullets.
Gabriella Samuels, 22, recalled that she and her husband were engaged in a peaceful demonstration on Thursday morning about 10:30 am on the Soesdyke road, to protest what happened on Wednesday, when the police intervened, fired pellets into the air to break up the crowd and apprehended the two of them. She alleged that the police assaulted her husband, causing injuries to his face and hand. He is currently in custody. She said throughout the ordeal they indicated to the police that they were just protesting peacefully because they had nowhere to go and after she kept insisting that the police let go of her husband, she was allegedly choked by the police. She pleaded with the officers to release him because he is asthmatic but they refused. She too wants justice.
Alexander Smith, 28, said he, his wife, and two daughters occupied a wooden single-storey house. Around 3:15 pm on Wednesday, he alleged, two policemen beat his wife with a baton after she rushed back into the home to collect one of her children and didn’t want to come out again. He noted it was just her and one of her daughters at home at the time and she didn’t know what to do.
Smith claimed that after she was beaten, she rushed out of the house with her child in her arms and the police fired pellets scaring her and causing her to let go of the child and continue running. The pellets did not hit her or the child, but her hand was injured from the beating. The family is calling for justice. They said that only a couple of months ago, Almeen had agreed for them to live there and to pay down on the land until they could become owners of it. What happened on Wednesday, Smith related, was a shock to both him and his wife.
