7 News Belize

GSU Accused Again Of Brutal Tactics
posted (March 22, 2012)
Tonight, the Gang Suppression Unit is again under extreme scrutiny - after members of a City Gang are alleging that the Unit systematically brutalized them last night.

Last night at around nine, the GSU descended on Taylor's Alley - which is off Orange Street.

No one knows what was their mission, but in the process - residents say - the Unit rained down on them with vicious brutality. Our Daniel Ortiz was out there after the attack last night and went back this morning. Here's what some of the victims told him:..

Daniel Ortiz reporting
Taylor's Alley, seen here, was the scene of the latest reported attack by officers of the GSU.

According to residents, the officers ambushed 6 men who usually hang out in the Alley and brutalized them without any cause for provocation and without declaring that this was a police-sanctioned raid in the area.

We managed to catch up with them today, and they told us about the frightening attack, all the acts of humiliation that the officers forced them to endure.

The first up to speak to us was the man said to be the leader of Taylor's Alley Arthur Young, who told us how the officers moved in on them.

Arthur Young - Assaulted by Police
"The officers came through the back and told everybody to freeze and get on the ground. Before we managed to get on the ground the officer started to beat us up. They kicked us and stomped us in the face and they threatened us."

"It doesn't make any sense; they come to us like that. They could have come and said 'freeze' and search us. Then if somebody needs to get charged, then they could have just taken the person to the station. The things that they did are not right because we as human beings can only take a certain amount."

"I can guarantee that I am not an evil person along with the fellas. We don't start anything and don't try to instigate any problems. Now the police tell me that I am the one who brings the guys out here, and I am the one who has them doing the extra work here. They don't know me, and they don't know my heart. I have love. You can't deal with a person's character from the past because everyone can change. I am in the streets and will forever be in the streets because if I am not here then more things can happen that weren't supposed to happen."

"I here, think that I am a mediator to make sure everything goes right because if I am not around these little boys can do anything they want. They treat us like we are animals, like a real wild animal that cannot be tamed. They kicked us in our heads; they used the taser on us; they threw cold water on us; they kicked us in our ribs and threw away our tennis. They don't respect anything. Our children are around watching; the boys' parents are around watching. I tried to tell them to stop because kids are crying, but they didn't. They are overdoing it."

"When they knew that I am Arthur Young they started to beat me more. First time most of the officers saw me because I am not around like that. Even when they patrol through here I don't let them see my face; I stay inside. But the way they came last night - it's like I was wondering if they came to kill us because they beat us for an hour."

This is another of the young men who was socializing in Taylor's Alley, and he alleges that the GSU officers brutalized him. Notice that his jaw and his ankle are bandaged. He says that the officers struck him repeatedly and hard enough to fracture the jawbone and sprain his ankle.

He suffered the most serious injury

Victim
"I was here chilling with 6 of my friends here. They officers came and so we went through the other alley to chill out. We were there talking positive things when the officers came and told us to freeze. We got down on the ground. As I got down they stomped me in my head causing my chin to burst open and my jaw to fracture."

"They put us to lie down on top of one another. My friend was at the bottom, they told him to feel the weight to his soldiers. Literally, they squeeze his hands. They took us in a dark yard and tried to throw us in a zinc fence. They punched me in my face. I didn't even know what happened to me when I came from back there. They hand-cuffed me from all the rest and brought me to my apartment where they ransacked my apartment."

"Literally, they took my phone and went through my messages and asked me questions, and if I didn't answer they told me that they would lock me down. I don't know what is going on with the police officers. Now I am in pain."

Daniel Ortiz
"So, throughout this entire ordeal, they didn't show you guys any sort of warrant or any sort of documentation?"

Victim
"They say that they didn't need that. They say that their gun is their warrant. They don't come with leniency. We are not animals; all of us are human beings. Once they come and tell us to get against the wall, we will get against the wall. Some of us get on the ground before they even put us on the ground. If we don't get on the ground, we would get knocked out, punched out- kick us off our feet or drag us on our faces."

This is another man that the GSU allegedly assaulted, and who was willing to speak to us about the experience. He told us how the officers executed an unprovoked attacked against them, which pretty much sound exactly like what the other two men told us.

Brenton Garoy - Assaulted by Police
"Last night I was just sitting down, kicking back and relaxing when the officers came through the alley and told us to freeze. We complied to them and they just put us on the ground. We lay down flat and put our heads on the ground; they started to stomp us in our heads; they tasered us and wet with cold water that they bought at the shop."

And now, these men and the citizens of Taylor's Alley are outraged at what has taken place, and they are taking steps to seek action against the men who they say assaulted them.

Victim
"I have a son that I don't want to be around with because of those officers. My son is already a rebellious young boy. I don't want them to mark my son because that is how they are; they will mark your child from you."

"All I can say is that time is longer than rope. When my time comes then it's just that."

Brenton Garoy - Assaulted by Police
"From I was 13 years old I was facing these kinds of things. I don't know what is really going on with the system. I would really want them do something to this because we are fed up. When we are fed up there is only so much that we can take."

Concerned Eyewitness
"How the police are working - it's not right. Yes you can do your job as police but from when I am little - and I know myself - I always know that the police are here to protect you. If someone chances you, the first place you would run is the police station because the police can help you."

"But now, it's the police who are doing the chance. We don't mind the police coming to search, but why come and beat up the young men so crazily through an alley or on the streets in front of children, in front of mothers who are watching their children. For me as a mother seeing a policeman quarrelling with my son, what do you think I would do? I would want to take the gun from that policeman and shoot him."

"If they want to do their job they can do it in the daytime. Don't wait until it's dark to come and chance nobody through an alley where children are. Some children were doing their school homework."

"Some of the fathers were with their kids in their houses when the police dragged them out their house and threw water on them and did them all sorts of rudeness. I can't even say it because I have children and wouldn't want them to know what the police are doing."

Arthur Young - Assaulted by Police
"I don't know who are dealing with the GSU but GSU have to know that we know where they live and we know where their woman lives and we know their children. We know everything, so if they are trying to turn us into a monster they have to watch out because if we turn into a monster then there would be a lot of bloodshed, and we don't want to do that."

"They're supposed to try come in here and talk to us, reason with us or something. You can't come and beat us up because that will not happen. That will have to stop."

Daniel Ortiz
"What is the next action that you and the other 5 guys from this alley plan to do? Do you plan to take legal action?"

Arthur Young - Assaulted by Police
"We plan to take legal action definitely because we have been to the hospital last night, and we have the police report, the doctor paper and everything. So our Area Representative Mr. Finnegan will help direct us. He will make everything happen."

Now, Young has made a rally call to those young men in the streets that the police have assaulted not to retaliate against officers or any of the public officers because of it's possible snowball effect.

Arthur Young - Assaulted by Police
"We just have to stray strong and at the same time we have to focus because if we deal with the officers the same way how they deal with us, it will be bloodshed because we can do the same thing, but we just are restraining ourselves from doing that because that is not what we want. We never want to have to fight against the police. We don't even like that I have problems in the streets with other guys."

And at around 1:45 p.m., the men were escorted by officials from CYDP to the Queen Street Police Station to make their formal report against the officers who assaulted them last night.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize