Youth claims police brutality

The reports aired earlier this week about the beating of football stars Charlie Slusher and Norman “Tilliman” Nunez was hardly the first time that Channel Five has highlighted allegations of police brutality. While authorities acted promptly to investigate the incident and discipline four officers pending further inquiries, the question remains whether such quick official action would have been taken had the victims not been celebrities. Today we were visited by a young man who says that on Tuesday night he saw his brother being choked by two assailants he had previously seen drinking in a bar. He went to protect him, not knowing the men were police officers attempting to arrest a suspect.

Jose Sanchez

“Do you know why they were trying to apprehend him in the first place?

Emett Lanza

“No, I don’t know why they were trying to hurt him. And I did not know they were police officers because they were in their civilian (clothing), and they had their Guinness pint in their hands. The boy told them I had a gun and a machete and they came straight at me.”

Jose Sanchez

“Okay, did you have any gun or machete?”

Emett Lanza

“No, I never had a gun or machete. They just jumped out of the pick-up along with the other two guys, Serious Crime, and just start to beat me up bad; all of them. They took me, my sister, my father. They beat up my sister too, beat up my father, and beat up me also. They took me to the police station, and as they took me there, they locked down my sister and my father, and they took me to the C.I.B. office and they beat me up some more. All the rest of police that came in, Serious Crime, put in some work on me and beat me more. And the same one that I stopped from beating my brother, came in and started to beat me some more and he put a gun to my head and told me he would kill me.”

Up to news time we were unable to receive comment on this incident from the Police.