SSU Assaults Reporter At Work!

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his past Tuesday was the second and final day of the annual Carnival festival. Under the blistering hot sun, hundreds made their way from the Choc roundabout to Castries. As one of the bands approached the Vigie roundabout, a group of police officers and onlookers was gathered together near the pedestrian crossing. They surrounded a young boy, who looked to be around nine years old. The boy had accidentally gotten one of his legs stuck in a metal drain along the walkway.

As tears rolled down the distressed youngster’s cheeks, some people lent a helping hand, while others offered the child words of comfort. An ambulance had been called but, as time went by, with no sign of the vehicle, some in the gathering became quite impatient. One woman angrily shouted: “Since the time they cannot reach!” Actually only a few minutes had elapsed since the call for an ambulance but in the circumstances seconds seemed like hours. By the time the ambulance arrived, the little boy had been freed. He was handed over to the medical professionals aboard the ambulance.

During the rescue, this reporter arrived at the scene and began to photograph the incident but a member of the Special Services Unit of the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) demanded that I quit taking pictures of the rescue. “Take pictures of the revellers instead!” he ordered. I informed him that I was only doing my job, which involved more than taking pictures of the merry-makers. At that, the officer roughly shoved me aside.

When I attempted to photograph the scene the officer again jammed me in the chest and threatened to arrest me. Several more times the officer assaulted me. He was soon joined by a fellow police officer. They ignored revellers who appealed to them to permit me to do my job. I finally decided to move on, thoroughly depressed, with little appetite for the rest of Carnival.

I’ve been doing a lot of rethinking since the incident. Before I became a reporter for this newspaper I was disinclined to believe reports of police brutality. Not anymore. I’ve also been questioning what I’ve heard about Operation Restore Confidence. On Thursday evening, while I was completing this story for publication with my TV on in the background, I was distracted when the host of TALK (and publisher of this newspaper) announced that former police commissioner Vernon Francois had written about his time in the force. The publisher read a few lines from the book’s preface that touched on Operation Restore Confidence. Considering what I suffered at the hands of our supposed protectors at Carnival-time—while doing my job—I can hardly wait to read what Mr. Francois has to say about the police killings of 2010-11, still unresolved. I pray I can read his “Restored Confidence” with an open mind!