RADIO and television personality Ossie Rodgers said he was yesterday afternoon humiliated and subsequently assaulted by four ranks of the Sparendaam Police Station as he exited the Guyana International Conference Centre.

Last evening, the man visited the Chronicle newspaper with a swollen jaw which he said he sustained after he was slapped and punched by a traffic officer attached to the Sparendaam Police Station in the presence of three other ranks including an inspector.
Rodgers, a radio broadcaster and journalist working with the National Television Network (NTN Channel 18/Cable 69) and NTN Radio (89.1 FM) claimed that he was heading out of the Conference Centre after attending the opening of the National Economic Forum when the police ranks, who are no strangers to him began making mockery of him and addressing him loudly with profanities, even though a number of high-ranking officials were inside the centre, including President Donald Ramotar and Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
Rogers said he ignored the police ranks and waited for them to stop the oncoming traffic so that he could turn onto the railway embankment since they usually give priority to vehicles exiting the conference centre. However, Rodgers claimed that no priority was given to him and he was deliberately ‘stalled’ by the police.
“They deliberately kept me waiting to turn onto the embankment as they called upon the oncoming traffic to proceed while refusing to give way to my vehicle,” Rodgers said.
He explained that during that time, one female officer whom he identified as ‘Nedd’ began calling him a homosexual and she pointed in his direction. He quoted her saying “Eh, Eh look homosexual Ossie Rogers; what she doing here”. At that point another police rank who was identified as Lance Corporal Hercules joined in and began laughing. He was also quoted by Rodgers as saying: “Now you see she, I see she since she drive in here this midday like if she is the first lady.” Rodgers claimed that the police ranks continued to taunt him, forcing him to exit his vehicle and approach the officer, reprimanding him about his conduct in uniform.
He said the police rank then pointed his hands into his face. “He chucked me and said he don’t deal with shitty PPP supporters,” Rodgers stated.
Rodgers said he was then “slapped in the face, pushed to the ground and then kicked by the police rank in the presence of other police ranks”. Rogers said that he was then encouraged by the rank who assaulted him to go and complain to whoever he wants to complain to.
The media operative stated that during the assault, his glasses were broken and he suffered a swollen left side of his face from the ‘stinging slap’ he received. The man said that immediately after the assault, a senior female police inspector came out of the conference centre compound where she was on duty and the matter was related to her by Rodgers.
Rodgers described the senior officer as one Johnson who is said to be a station sergeant. The woman encouraged the man to go to the Sparendaam police station and make a formal report and also advised him to lodge his glasses.
The abused man then travelled to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he sought medical attention. He was then issued with a medical certificate which was seen by this newspaper and which stated that the man was treated for swelling to the left side of the face.
Asked why the police would want to assault him to that extent, Rodgers said that it dates back since 2012 when he realised that he was being unfairly targeted and discriminated against by ranks from the traffic department at Sparendaam who would always stop and search him wherever he saw him.
He pointed to one case where he was stopped and searched three days in a row by Hercules and that the cop demanded to see the same set of documents on all three occasions. Rogers said that on the fourth consecutive day that he was stopped and the documents were again requested by the said officer he refused to hand them over and he was charged with failing to produce his documents.
According to Rodgers, the matter was taken to court and the magistrate, after listening to his explanation about the three previous stops and searches, threw the case out. That decision apparently angered the police at Sparendaam who vowed to ensure that they once again march Rodgers up the court stairs this time on a more serious charge.
Ossie Rodgers told the Chronicle that he feels very frustrated dealing with the police at Sparendaam, because every time he goes there it becomes a laughing matter for the ranks there. He recalled that on several occasions he visited the station to make reports and instead of his report being entertained, he was placed on the bench and humiliated by ranks on duty.
He pointed to one case where he went to the said station and when he was placed on the bench the ranks went upstairs and began talking loudly among themselves. “Go downstairs and see who I get on the bench.” Shortly after a police rank came down the stairs, took his photograph with his blackberry device and went back upstairs where the mockery continued.
Rogers said the Police Office of Professional Responsibility has already been informed of the harassment he is subjected to almost each day by police ranks at Sparendaam.