For almost 24 hours now, a video has been going viral on Facebook showing GSU officers detaining a Belize City man - while his lady friend screams.
Now, depending on who you ask, the force they used to restrain him is either excessive, questionable, or reasonable given the circumstances. But, as you can see, the man is conversation with the GSU officers, and then one of them comes up and grabs him around the neck in a chokehold. The officer then proceeds to carry him, to their police mobile, until they both fall to the ground.
Pretty rough stuff, but Deputy Police Commissioner Chester Williams told us today, that the video only shows half of the story. When we caught up with him in San Pedro, he said that the video conveniently omits how this same man allegedly resisted arrest.
Here's what he had to say on it:
DCP Chester Williams, OC - Operations
"It has been our practice to inform our officers that they must at all times treat the public with the utmost degree of respect. But in that same vein, we must also understand that the police do have a job to do and in the execution of the police duties, at times they encounter persons who may be resistant to the police. In the particular incident that was the case from what I have been made to understand and if you look at the video, the video didn't show what lead to the officers doing what they did. But from what we have gathered, is that the police officers went to detain the young man who was wanted in connection with an investigation."
"They had a back and forth with the police trying to convince to him to go with them and he blatantly said to the police he is not going anywhere. Now what do you expect the police to do? Walk away from a man who refused to be taken into custody? The law is clear that the police must use all force that is reasonably necessary in the circumstances to detain a person who is wanted by the police and from what I saw on the video, the police used the force that was necessary to detain the person."
"I didn't see the police brutalizing him. They grabbed him and they took him to the vehicle to get him inside the vehicle and take him to the police station."
"I need the public to understand that while yes we support the public in the sense that the police must not brutalize them, we call upon the public to be more cooperative with the police and even if the police want to detain you, you know you have not committed a crime, your duty is to comply. If at the end of the day the investigation prove that you are not the person committed a crime, you will be released from custody. But when you resist the police arrest, the law does give the police the authority to use force that is necessary to get you into custody."
Williams says that the Professional Standards Branch will be reviewing it.
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