Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Law stu­dent Pa­tri­cia Ram­sawak wants act­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Stephen Williams to in­ves­ti­gate three of­fi­cers from the Oropouche Po­lice Sta­tion. She claims she and and her broth­ers were abused by the of­fi­cers. Ram­sawak, of St John's Trace, South Oropouche, said she plans to file a com­plaint with Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty chair­man Gillian Lucky and take le­gal ac­tion against the of­fi­cers. This fol­lows an in­ci­dent on Au­gust 25, when a group of men at­tacked her broth­er Adesh while he sat in his Mit­subishi van at around 7 pm at St John's.

Adesh said he was eat­ing a burg­er when a young man start­ed to heck­le him. An ar­gu­ment en­sued and the youth re­turned with a gang of men, all armed with cut­lass­es. The gang chopped up the front and back wind­screens of Adesh's van, as well as the bumper.

Adesh said he be­came fear­ful for his life and sped off. He drove to the Oropouche Po­lice Sta­tion to make a com­plaint but the of­fi­cers on du­ty told him they did not have a ve­hi­cle to go to the scene. They ad­vised Adesh to re­turn home and promised to take a state­ment. Hours lat­er, Adesh and Ram­sawak went to the sta­tion. How­ev­er, the of­fi­cers re­fused to leave to in­ves­ti­gate the crime, say­ing they were busy and Ram­sawak had to wait for a few days.

"My broth­er start­ed to com­plain about how un­help­ful the po­lice were be­hav­ing. One of­fi­cer (name called) told Adesh that he look­ing for lock-up. They said they will car­ry him in the back and give him a good lick­ing," Ram­sawak said. Af­ter the threat, they left but re­turned the next day, on­ly to be told that the in­ves­ti­ga­tor was not on du­ty so they had to come back in two days. For the next three weeks Adesh went to the sta­tion but none of the of­fi­cers both­ered with him.

"When­ev­er he went to the sta­tion they would say the in­ves­ti­ga­tor tak­ing a rest, or he was out or that he was off du­ty. No­body else want­ed to take the re­port or ar­rest the as­sailants," Ram­sawak said. She said the men con­tin­ued to is­sue death threats against her fam­i­ly. "They said they will burn down our house and our cars...They know they could get away with it be­cause the po­lice are un­will­ing to charge them," she said.

She claimed that on Sat­ur­day when Adesh went to the sta­tion, one of the of­fi­cers shoved him out of the build­ing and told him not to come back. When she spoke on his be­half, Ram­sawak said one of the of­fi­cers made sex­u­al ad­vances to her. Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, the in­ves­ti­ga­tor said he could not lay charges un­less Adesh brought in an es­ti­mate of the dam­age to the sta­tion. He said it was "high­ly un­like­ly" that the po­lice shoved Adesh out of the sta­tion or was ver­bal­ly abu­sive.