SOME members of the Guyana Police Force came in for some criticism yesterday, after a police  rank who was later joined by another, physically assaulted Chronicle news reporter Leroy Smith, even as the Commander of A Division George Vyphius looked on and offered no caution to his ranks. The reporter was at the time covering the Mashramani float parade along Church and Oronoque streets when the incident occurred. The commander and his officers were seated on the Merriman’s Mall, under a tent.
According to spectators and some reporters who witnessed the ordeal said the police were very abusive to a group of media operatives.
One woman explained to the Guyana Chrnicle that the group of media operatives had just finished interviewing her when they began heading east along Church Street. She also commented that she saw a police officer approach one of the reporters and held him by the arm and then summoned another police officer to arrest him.
‘If you see how this police come and scramble the reporter and start dragging him through the crowd and the reporter start shouting asking him not to man handle he and then the police weggie the boy.”
The woman also commented that the reporter then attempted to restrain the police officer whose approached she described as one that would cause anyone to react the way the reporter reacted.
“Then when the reporter hold on to he shirt he continued pushing and tugging the boy through the crowd and when dem meet the mall where the commander and dem other police deh sitting, one ah dem in a brown uniform walk up to the reporter and lash he in he chest and drag him under the tent. Imagine the commander was sitting right there and he aint tell them nothing den all of dem start surrounding de boy and when another camera man start recording, then dem move aside.”
Meanwhile, the police then decided to take Smith down to the police station and placed him in the lock ups before deciding to have him released on his own recognizance.
The Guyana Chronicle then sought to get a comment from Commander George Vyphius on the mater which he himself witnessed. However, he refused and was heard commenting that he was waiting to see what the front page headline is going to be like tomorrow and then he will know what to do. The Guyana Chronicle also spoke with Leroy Smith who recalled the ordeal. He said that the basis of the police action is still unclear to him and cited his intentions to dealing legally with the police officer who slapped him in the chest in the presence of the A Division Commander George Vyphius.
Leroy smith said that the police officer who arrested him was about to accompany him to the Brickdam Police Station but was later called back by the commander who instructed other officers to take him to the station. Smith explained that the police officer who ordered his arrest was the one who accompanied him to the Brickdam Police Station and not the other who assaulted him.
Leroy Smith said that the police then wrote a statement and asked him to sign. He said that the beginning of statement was a total misrepresentation of the facts. He explained that the police statement stated that police officer who assaulted him was the one who brought him to the Brickdam Station. According to Smith, he stopped reading the statement right there and told the police that it was inaccurate.
The police then made a note that Smith refused to sign the statement.
Meanwhile reporters from the Guyana Chronicle and the National Communications Network were chased out of the police station when they attempted to give statements to the police. They were later allowed into the station and a statement was taken from a female reporter of NCN which was endorsed by a reporter from the Guyana Chronicle.
Leroy Smith was also denied his fundamental and basic right by the station sergeant Mr. Clement, to write or give a statement. Smith is expected to report to the Alberttown Police Station for 9:00hrs this morning. He was charged with assaulting a police officer, failing to follow police directions, and damage to property.