Members of the Opposition St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party are accusing the police of brutality against a supporter who was allegedly assaulted and arrested after a protest in Ponds Site Thursday morning.
MP Marcella Liburd, who was one of the protesters at a ceremony at the site for the unveiling of the 3-D design of the proposed new Basseterre High School, gave Freedom FM an account of the incident.
“We were at the site of the proposed new Basseterre High School on the Aquifer this morning in protest. Our simple message is ‘new Basseterre High School yes, on the Aquifer no’. So we were thee with our placards protesting. About half way through the program the majority of us left and three of the young persons including Nerise Chiverton said they would stay. A couple minutes after we had left we got a call to say that Nerise was arrested, so I proceeded to go to the Basseterre Police Station in order to find out exactly what the position was.
“In speaking with her discovered that as the prime Minister Hon. Timothy Harris was about to speak a police officer approached her and basically told her she couldn’t stay there, she would have to go. Nerise said well if you could show which law I’m breaking then I’d probably move but I have my rights just like everybody else, and so she stayed. The officer was insisting that she couldn’t stay there, she had to go, even though she had been there for most of the time, and proceeded to chuck her, punch her in her face, pull her hair, to pull on her clothes and said you will have to come with me, I’m going to arrest you. Then she called on some other security personnel, males now, who came and helped to drag her into a vehicle, and take her down into the police station.
Liburd said up until after midday they were trying to get the police to press whatever charges so that the woman could be released.
“This is just totally unacceptable. People have the right of protest in this country whether you like what they’re saying or not- totally unacceptable to have had Nerise assaulted in that manner. It would just be another abuse to have her there all the time because they’re refusing to charge her. Imagine the very female police officer who had assaulted her is saying to her at the station ‘I’m going to take a statement from you’. Nerise refused to give her a statement saying how can she give a statement to the very person who assaulted her because she [Nerise] intended to bring charges against the officer for assault. We’ve already consulted counsel, who was there, and we were trying to ensure Nerise was released as soon as possible.”