Police brutality in Trinidad and Tobago

[nirtime]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

The man video taping was telling the disabled man to go back. Provoking him and therefore escalating the situation to the point where the man got slapped. Yes everyone has free will and has the power to make their own choices but at that moment I think his ability to make proper decisions was impaired

Wasn't aware he was interfering. He should not have said anything.

 

[Shadowhunter]

Maybe the person recording just wanted some youtube hits, or like a lot of people out there, wanted to "chook ting" and see what would happen. I don't know what his reasons were but I agree, after being treated that way, the man in the wheelchair would not have been thinking as logically and could have taken heed to the goading based on the emotional state the officers provoked. I am glad something is happening in response to this and I hope they set a precedence to prove that no matter the circumstances and ranks, no one is above the law.

 

[Steven Ramadar]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

SRP officers and Amalgamated officers feel like they is the army or something because they exerting power they don't have

 

[Shadowhunter]

True. I've heard the "I am the law" statement from some of them before, which sadly is a popular joke by both officers and members of the community. But when they act out that statement, it's a shock and no one understands how or why such a thing could happen. At least something is being done about this. There are many, many more cases that are swept under the rug on a way too regular basis.

 

[Steven Ramadar]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

Trinidad is the country of corruption. All these unanswered questions. Every time someone gets into a tight spot, money passes and they get out scotch free. No doubt about it if these 2 officers pass enough money the investigation would be stopped due to "lack of evidence" or something of the sort.

 

[Shadowhunter]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

Trinidad is the country of corruption. All these unanswered questions. Every time someone gets into a tight spot, money passes and they get out scotch free. No doubt about it if these 2 officers pass enough money the investigation would be stopped due to "lack of evidence" or something of the sort.

Not just money passing, but who they know as well. If the powers that be can come up with a good enough story this could very well end up as another forgotten case. That's often the case when power, money, and/or contacts are involved.

 

[nirtime]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

Its everyday we hear stories that just go dead silent after a while passes once it comes to the people up top with the power and possession

 

[Steven Ramadar]

Re: Police brutality... Against animals now?

My question is why this gained so much exposure. Not that it shouldn't, but if I recall there are other videos of police abusing there power. There's one where the police slaps a rasta man and then Ian Alleyne had a video where police proke into a man's house without a warrant and shot his two pitbulls. Just because the man is handicapped? What about the other people also

 

[MangaAddict]

So this is what our country is coming to? Law abiding citizens are being brutalized by the police and these same citizens who do nothing wrong have to be afraid of the police, while the criminals passing a lil money, have the police in their back pockets and free to walk around like they own the place! All that bad the officer playing he bad, do you think he would have done that in Laventille? I don't think so!

 

[Saxman642]

I came across a couple Express articles I'd like to share.

An express editorial which shares the public's general stance:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/commentaries/Stern-message-for-abusive-cops-287299911.html

And then this fool named Thornton Sargeant who posted this garbage SUPPORTING the SRP's actions

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Hats-off-to-SRP-officers-287473031.html

Apparently his full stupidity shows in a comment on the editorial:

Stern message my foot. Special Reserve Police officers have always been the bastard child of the Police Service and could always be kicked out 'by the stroke of a pen' by the Commissioner once any complaint is lodged.

Your headline should correctly read: Stern Message for Abusive Special Reserve Police Officers for the regular police are safe because the Commissioner would never remove or even suspend any abusive regular police like for example the black man ACP Reyes.

But I feel sorry for these SRP officers who didn?t have the regular police street smarts like 1) seizing the camera of anybody filming 2) once you hit a citizen, charge him 3) lie, lie lie to save your work if you have to go to court.

Let them prove you?re lying. Hats off to these SRP officers, although they ?gone thru?, for taking affirmative action against another lawless citizen with no repect for the authority of the police. Wheelchair or no wheelchair, disrespecting the police is disrespecting the state and these public ?executions? are needed for the message to be understood nothwithstanding all the crocodile tears from the public.

And If you decide to look for this Thornton Sargeant on facebook, all you will find on his page is PORN! Disgusting human. Thankfully he is not an SRP anymore

 

[LadyDeath]

This is beyond disgusting! I really do hope justic is served to all who is found guilty.

I heard that the wheelchair man was spitting on people and calling them racial names when the woman police intervened. If this is true, they should not have slapped him though. They could of carry him to the station to charge him . smh!

 

[Shadowhunter]

I'm thankful the officers were reprimanded for their behavior. The man could have cursed and insulted everyone around at the top of his lungs for all we know; regardless of his mental state we have laws for a reason. If it were perfectly legal to rough up people who piss us off or offend us, Trinidad would be in an even worse state. It isn't legal though, and a system that allows authorities to use force as their emotions and pride dictate seems a bit tyrannical to me. We turn to those in authority to handle situations in a just, legal way since we, as ordinary citizens acting on emotions and pride lack the training such authorities supposedly endure to educate them on proper techniques to handle difficult situations. We call on them to do the right thing. Not whatever it was they did that day.

If a citizen commits a crime, arrest him. Imagine if you get pulled over for speeding and the officer in the situation pulls you out of the car and starts to slap you! Sure, you would be wrong in that scenario (initially) and maybe the officer really, really haters speeders; again, we have a legal system for a reason. This should set a precedent for other authorities that abuse their position as well. Though, as the article stated, there are corrupt officers that will take/ruin someone's phone so they don't get caught or simply ensure to do what they want to do in an area they are sure no one is filming.

Good that society is bucking up on officers. I hope we can just as easily point that finger on ourselves when we are wrong as well.

 

[nirtime]

I'm thankful the officers were reprimanded for their behavior. The man could have cursed and insulted everyone around at the top of his lungs for all we know; regardless of his mental state we have laws for a reason. If it were perfectly legal to rough up people who piss us off or offend us, Trinidad would be in an even worse state. It isn't legal though, and a system that allows authorities to use force as their emotions and pride dictate seems a bit tyrannical to me. We turn to those in authority to handle situations in a just, legal way since we, as ordinary citizens acting on emotions and pride lack the training such authorities supposedly endure to educate them on proper techniques to handle difficult situations. We call on them to do the right thing. Not whatever it was they did that day.

If a citizen commits a crime, arrest him. Imagine if you get pulled over for speeding and the officer in the situation pulls you out of the car and starts to slap you! Sure, you would be wrong in that scenario (initially) and maybe the officer really, really haters speeders; again, we have a legal system for a reason. This should set a precedent for other authorities that abuse their position as well. Though, as the article stated, there are corrupt officers that will take/ruin someone's phone so they don't get caught or simply ensure to do what they want to do in an area they are sure no one is filming.

Good that society is bucking up on officers. I hope we can just as easily point that finger on ourselves when we are wrong as well.

Shadowhunter, in an odd and twisted way, it can be considered legal to interfere with people who get us enraged, think about it. With a lack of police presence and a lack of social conduct and a society thats only for itself, people can pretty much get away with beating one another in the street and a big crowd will gather and start to film and take pictures to post to facebook rather than try to separate it. So in my eyes, its not legal from the standpoint of the law but quite the opposite from a defiant societal perspective on the other hand.

If a citizen commits a crime, be it disrespect or whatever, theres a reason why police have hand cuffs and legal power. But no, police feel the need to prove themselves because they have a badge and a uniform. Its not just in Trinidad alone though, I see too many videos of police trying to arrest people on false pretenses in the usa but with video capturing and being able to actually know some law, they were pretty much able to save themselves.(Although I feel in Trinidad they will just beat people for that)

Good on society for standing up for one situation but what about the rest? There are a lot more that go unanswered or ignored. Yes, people don't point a finger at themselves, they quick to talk about incidents and seem so patriotic and enthusiastic about their country but once the media moves their cameras and mics, these are the same people who spitting in the road and cussin us who driving properly. So evidently without some form of social change, maybe driven by the institutions responsible for guiding social behaviour, we may as well just consider this an exception.

 

[Shadowhunter]

Shadowhunter, in an odd and twisted way, it can be considered legal to interfere with people who get us enraged, think about it. With a lack of police presence and a lack of social conduct and a society thats only for itself, people can pretty much get away with beating one another in the street and a big crowd will gather and start to film and take pictures to post to facebook rather than try to separate it. So in my eyes, its not legal from the standpoint of the law but quite the opposite from a defiant societal perspective on the other hand.

If a citizen commits a crime, be it disrespect or whatever, theres a reason why police have hand cuffs and legal power. But no, police feel the need to prove themselves because they have a badge and a uniform. Its not just in Trinidad alone though, I see too many videos of police trying to arrest people on false pretenses in the usa but with video capturing and being able to actually know some law, they were pretty much able to save themselves.(Although I feel in Trinidad they will just beat people for that)

Good on society for standing up for one situation but what about the rest? There are a lot more that go unanswered or ignored. Yes, people don't point a finger at themselves, they quick to talk about incidents and seem so patriotic and enthusiastic about their country but once the media moves their cameras and mics, these are the same people who spitting in the road and cussin us who driving properly. So evidently without some form of social change, maybe driven by the institutions responsible for guiding social behaviour, we may as well just consider this an exception.

Interesting and eerily true point! I was taught in elementary school that every change begins with each of us. Unfortunately, the majority opinion in our society is if he/she can do it and get away with it, why can't I? I've noticed an increasing trend of people standing by to take pictures or video footage of incidents where they could have been of assistance or at least alerted authorities. The recorder/photographer gets youtube and facebook hits and in some cases (like this one) instigates further drama. In some cases, it's good that there's evidence of the incident though, but I wonder if we can come to a day where the anonymous kind Samaritan reigns supreme.

 

[admin]

one problem I have with the mentality of some police officers in this country is that they feel they can badge in into people's homes with out a search warrant and many times you have dogs as a form of protection they shoot and kill them. This lawlessness and no one seems to putting a stop to this. Another thing is that the police service are recruiting persons without doing a proper background check on these individuals which will always in the end result in bad outcome.

 

[Shadowhunter]

one problem I have with the mentality of some police officers in this country is that they feel they can badge in into people's homes with out a search warrant and many times you have dogs as a form of protection they shoot and kill them. This lawlessness and no one seems to putting a stop to this. Another thing is that the police service are recruiting persons without doing a proper background check on these individuals which will always in the end result in bad outcome.

I thought all officers needed proper background checks; this is quite surprising to me! That would explain a lot in terms of corrupt officers.
I think we needs to be more educated on our rights. Most people take the word of any authority, unfortunately assuming that all authorities have their best interest at heart and are advising them truthfully (as they should in an ideal world). When most people find out someone in authority abused their position or otherwise did something wrong, the general response is something along the lines of "well, you can't do anything about it" or "what did you expect?".

 

[admin]

I may get bash for this but I will say it any how the amount of criminals join srp its astonishing, are you aware that srps service don't require any qualifications? are you aware that srps train for 2 weeks training in basic laws and 2 weeks firearm training which is a total of 4 weeks training, are you aware that they wear the same uniform as TTPS officers ?. Most of the time we Ttps gets the blame but its usually srps who screw up. They under go little to no background checks so as I said when criminals join they have access to the walkie talkie so they know everything about the police movements.

 

[Shadowhunter]

I may get bash for this but I will say it any how the amount of criminals join srp its astonishing, are you aware that srps service don't require any qualifications? are you aware that srps train for 2 weeks training in basic laws and 2 weeks firearm training which is a total of 4 weeks training, are you aware that they wear the same uniform as TTPS officers ?. Most of the time we Ttps gets the blame but its usually srps who screw up. They under go little to no background checks so as I said when criminals join they have access to the walkie talkie so they know everything about the police movements.

I am in total shock over this. I've heard way more trash talk of corrupt SRPs than of proper officers, and this explains a whole lot. Just look at the incident with the handicapped man where the SRP felt he was above the law and could deal with people however he pleased.

This "process" is nothing more than a joke giving any random person full authority and I do not think it should be that way at all. Is there anything that can be done about this? It's basically a huge glowing welcome sign to all shady people and especially actual criminals. Tsk, tsk, tsk. When people say "criminals run this country" I guess it's more literal than I thought.

 

[admin]

Nothing can be done sorry I should say nothing will be done to stop this. Also when an SRP officer makes two years service he can be absorbed in the the TTPS as a full pledged officer even if he has no subjects and was not trained for 6 months.

 

[nirtime]

I may get bash for this but I will say it any how the amount of criminals join srp its astonishing, are you aware that srps service don't require any qualifications? are you aware that srps train for 2 weeks training in basic laws and 2 weeks firearm training which is a total of 4 weeks training, are you aware that they wear the same uniform as TTPS officers ?. Most of the time we Ttps gets the blame but its usually srps who screw up. They under go little to no background checks so as I said when criminals join they have access to the walkie talkie so they know everything about the police movements.

Wow admin you unearthed something I never knew in that point.
Thinking about it, it only seems logical to me.

Also why are they recruiting so many officers without proper checks?