Email

Print

And tonight, there is another complaint of abuse of police authority coming from a family living on the Belize City's Southside. 

This time, the alleged victim is Oliver Sutherland, a resident of Collet Canal, which is near to the Conch Shell Bay area. He and his family say that for a number of years now, police teams have visited their homes to conduct searches for illegal drugs and weapons. They say they have always shown respect for these officers, and that they have never tried to obstruct them from doing their jobs. 

According to Sutherland's family, however, on Saturday morning at around 8:00, a team of police officers from 2 special units barged into their homes and put a beatdown on him. They claim that the officers arrived and demanded that speak to him. The officers told them that he was going to be investigated for a recent crime. 

Sutherland was allegedly complying, but he asked to be allowed to get dressed, somehow, the situation escalated to the point where several of the officers allegedly resorted brutal force to restrain him. His family has provided pictures that show an injury to the right eye, which was allegedly inflicted by one of the officers who struck him in the face with an assault rifle.

Today, the family called us to complain about that abuse, and what they say is an alarming increase in police searches of their home:

Oliver Sutherland - Claims Police Brutality
"Well they told me - because I was in only my towel. They told me that they wanted to see at the station for PI. I told them, alright then. They told me to put on some clothes. When I walked going into my room now to put on my clothes, they came behind me. I told them right now. They said all of us are men. As I put on my boxers and my pants, they forced me to the ground. They grabbed me around my throat and dragged me outside, but they were choking me hard to try to get me to pass out. When I passed out and fell on the ground there, they handcuffed me passed out on the ground. They took me back inside and told me that they would conduct a search on the house. I told them, alright boss. So, when they were doing that, they started to stamp me and kick me in my room. They punched me on my eye nonstop, and when I fell they kicked me up like crazy when I was on the ground. One of them took a machine gun and shoved it in my face, injuring my eye, right here. My eye was worse than this, but I went to the hospital, and they gave me some medication. Every morning, every night they come to my house, but sometimes it's like 8 times for the day. Sometimes it only me. Sometimes its 3 or 4 trucks [of police officers] for only me, for what? None of the neighbours are complaining about me. Nobody is complaining about me around here."

"They have some police officers who come, and they explain to you why they are here to search the house. And they will do their jobs. I don't have any problem with that. But, these ones come, those special units from Belmopan. They don't even know me, and they are looking at my mother's house. These police officers from Belize [City] know where I live, and they come straight to my house to me. Those others just come, and they are kicking me up. I am getting tired of this. More than 10 years police have been encountering me. They search me and do their job. You have never heard of me disrespecting any police, or getting into any problems with them. Those guys just came and attacked me, I don't know. I stay home every day. My mother asked me not to go out, and my mother wants me to avoid problems. I am avoiding the problem, and they come all the way here to come and cause problems with me and my people."

Brian Ferguson - Oliver's Brother
"All of us are always around when they come to do their search, we don't interfere. But they always have a few of them out of the [police] crowd who wants to do something to you to provoke you to disrespect them. That's what they did to my big brother."

Fredrick Sutherland - Oliver's Brother
"I'm afraid to even say what I want to say because I am always by myself. They will beat you, and police officers have other police's back. There is no proof in this. When my sister and others want to record it, [there is] no recording this because they [the police] want to beat them."

Esther Garcia - Oliver's Sister
"The young lady, who was the officer, told me to move away because it's not my business. So, I told her, miss, that's my business because that's my little brother. So, she said, you have to move away because I could charge you with an obstruction or something like that."

Reporter
"And so, you were simply videoing."

Esther Garcia
"I was trying to because they were giving me a hard time. First, they tried to tell me that they will break my phone. I moved away, every time. I got a few hits too, it doesn't matter. It was wrong because my phone is my business. They didn't buy my phone. What hurt me is because I couldn't help my brother as the big sister. I couldn't do anything. So, It was like I stood there just helpless."

Sutherland was released without any charges. His family says that they will pursue a complaint of police brutality about this incident. They also told us that they were hesitant to come forward to the press because they were concerned that it would only cause the police to increase the number of searches for illegal items. They decided that they would not remain silent. 

The family is also complaining that Sutherland had several hundred dollars in rent money on him that suddenly went missing during Saturday's encounter.

Police refused to comment din this as well, only saying that one r hundred persons were detained this weekend.  

Of note is that this family has lost a loved one to gun violence. 22-year-old Colin Sutherland was shot and killed on New Years Day of 2017.