Ranks at Timehri Police Station in hot water

…after woman claims male cop pushes hand in bosom

In the wake of the well publicized incidents of police brutality across the country, three cops attached to the Timehri Police Station, East Bank Demerara have become the latest to land in hot water. This time, a resident of Timehri is

accusing a male cop of pushing his hand in her bosom, while a female officer and another male rank in plainclothes assisted in holding her down. The woman, Vanda Thomas Pitt, 36, of Hyde Park, Timehri said she has photographs to back her allegations. Yesterday, Pitt explained that two officers from the Timehri Police Station visited her home twice last month to hand over a court document to her husband. “It is a summons for my husband. The first time they came, the letter was addressed to a Wayne De Jonge, but my husband is Wayne Pitt so I refused to collect the documents,” the woman explained. She added that the same two cops visited her again with the said document and she refused to collect it for a second time. “At that time my husband was in the backdam working so when they come back with the document I told them that I will not collect a document meant for someone else. I also informed them to look for the person on the road instead of coming to my house,” the mother of four said. Last Wednesday, Mrs. Pitt was cleaning her yard when three ranks approached her. “There was a female, the sergeant for the station and a rank in plainclothes. The sergeant called me and said, ‘Madam, collect this paper and give your husband’ and I told him that I will not collect the paper because it is not in my husband’s name,” the 36-year-old woman said. She further related that the senior rank took the paper and pushed it in her bosom, bursting her brassiere strap in the process. “When he pushed the paper in my bra, my breast was out because he burst my bra strap and he said, ‘I say tek the (expletive) paper and gave your husband’,” the woman said. According to Mrs. Pitt, she yelled at the officer. “I ask him how can he do something like that and I tell him that he is a man and he can’t do something like that. Then the female and the plain clothes policeman hold me down and the same sergeant slapped me.” Mrs. Pitt added that she shouted for her daughter to get her camera phone and take pictures of the police brutality towards her. “When my daughter started to take pictures, the two male cops walked away while the woman hold onto me and say she taking me to the station. I begged her to let me change my clothes. I was getting my menstruation and my clothes were not clean,” Mrs. Pitt said. The woman said she was thrown in the lockups and left there for the night until she was released on bail the following day. Only seven months ago, two officers attached to the station were accused of forcing a condom-covered baton up Colwyn Harding’s rectum while interrogating him about a break and enter. The ranks, Constables Devin Singh and Roselle Tilbury-Douglas were charged on June 4, last, for the assault on Harding. They have been released on bail. And, a young man, Junior Thornton, claimed that police ranks stationed at the Sparendaam Police Station soaked his hands in methylated spirits and set them alight, recently. Thornton, who is still a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), said that he was in the Sparendaam lock-ups for three days and his hands were burnt during that period. Also, 15-year-old Alex Griffith of North East La Penitence was shot in his mouth on April 30, last, by a cadet officer. This was after one of the policeman’s relatives was robbed and he thought the teen had information about the robbery. Efforts to contact the ranks who were accused of committing the act and the Commander of A- Division, Clifton Hicken, proved futile. Social and Political Activist, Mark Benschop, said, “I am not sure we are going to get anywhere in terms of police brutality. It appears as though those who are in the police hierarchy are sleeping. Even the president and the Minister of Home Affairs seem to be sleeping too.” According to Benschop, if those in authority continue to cover up police brutality against citizens, then the younger ranks will think it is alright for them to brutalize persons and get away with it. “The citizens have to come out and plan a massive protest if they want to see change,” the activist said.