The 17-year-old boy who captured on his cell phone two Special Reserve Police (SRP) officers allegedly assaulting paraplegic Robby Ramcharitar says he does not know how to edit videos. “Just how I tape it, it’s just how I upload it,” the teenager said at High Street, San Fernando, yesterday.
Responding to a claim by a relative of one the accused officers that the video was edited to omit Ramcharitar cursing and threatening to spit on the officer, the teenager said whatever his phone recorded was loaded to social networking site Facebook days after the incident. He said it was the same video that investigators from the Professional Standards Bureau got from his phone when they took his statement at the San Fernando Police Station yesterday.
Clarifying last Saturday’s incident again, the teenager said he was not expecting anything like this to happen. He claimed a man was using obscene language while talking to the police. He said another man came out of a van and confronted Ramcharitar. The teenager said he never saw the man before that day.
Despite the video going viral and generating heavy criticism against police brutality, the teenager said he regretted capturing the incident as it was frustrating giving interviews everyday since last Monday when the video went viral.
“Everyday people coming to bother me. Next time I am not taping anything. Whatever happens, happens,” he said. Asked why he recorded it, he said, “because it seemed funny at the time.”
Police marking us
Co-workers of the teenager claimed that since the video was captured, police officers have been marking their movements and trying to intimidate them. One of the men said a dougla police officer had been constantly passing their workplace, looking at them.
They said last Saturday, he followed them from the top of Lord Street to Library Corner, San Fernando, and eventually lined them up against a wall and searched them, but found nothing illegal.
“Police have been marking us since the day it happened. They have been talking to us, asking us questions to see if we will say something out of the way. Look, I really don’t want to say anything more because they are passing right through and they will see us talking to the Guardian.” Southern Division Senior Supt Cecil Santana said he would not tolerate any officers interfering with witnesses, and he would investigate any claims of threats or intimidation taking place.
He said, “We are not going to tolerate that kind of behaviour, certainly not in this division. We are not going to encourage that kind of behaviour. I want those guys to come into my office on Monday morning where I will interview them. “We will pay some attention to what is happening and whatever action has to be taken will be taken. We are not going tolerate that kind of the behaviour from police officers. They can’t interfere with witnesses. That is an offence.”