Shopkeeper accuses police of gross misconduct
They don’t always make it onto this newscast but over the last six months the number of reports reaching News Five involving police brutality has grown rapidly, reaching a peak during the recent September celebrations. Today shop owner Timmy Stamp visited our studios to offer his version of an incident that occurred last night.
Timmy Stamp, Claims Police Harassment
“I have a grocery shop at thirty-seven Dean Street and I was at the door standing up yesterday bout five-thirty, minutes to six, this dah evening when I see the three police vehicle coming up the street. Like I seh I noh the pay them no mind cause I no give no trouble. All ah they jump out in front ah my shop with gun ina they hand, up ina the air ina my face. Push mi back ina my shop. ‘We come fi search your shop’, but they noh seh fi what. They start turn over my shop. I ask they weh they the search my shop fa and they still no the answer me and tell me weh they the turn ova my shop fa.”
“One ah they gone ova to my deep freeze and open the deep freeze and slam it down. Weh ih slam it down ih bruk the spring ina di deep freeze. So I told him, I seh ‘bredda yoh just slam down wah deep freeze, yoh could bruk it.’ Ih look pan me and ih tell me if I want he kerr me backa my shop an bruk me up to like how ih bruk my refridge. I tell ah ‘bredda this noh mek sense, unu di push good people fi turn bad’, an deh continue rubbing down the shop. Two of them went behind mi counter and looked in my drawer where I have my money and thing and one of them went in my refridge where I have a bag with $150 in it and one of them took a hundred out of the bag and underneath my counter where I have my petty cash, I mi have bout seventy dollars under there and one of them took fifty out of the seventy dollars I had under there. And they continue to threaten me that they going to do me this and do me that, and I feel that then deh thing noh right mein. One ah them mi deh by the door. One of my customers came in to buy something from me and the policeman, no talking or nothing, just tek the gun and bat the lee bwoi ina ih mouth.”
“I noh sell no drugs, I no have no gun. I noh into they thing deh. I’m a change man. I noh know what dah they problem why they target me.”
We visited Racoon Street Police Station this afternoon to get the police side of things, but Senior Superintendent Chester Williams declined comment. He did tell us off camera that Stamp had filed a formal complaint about the incident at the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit and that it was under review.
