Man claims cops beat him with iron

An Edinboro man is claiming that officers of the Rapid Response Unit (Black Squad) of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force assaulted him for no apparent reason.{{more}}

Verbin Sutherland, a fisherman from Battery Hill, Edinboro, claims that he was searched and beaten by a group of five Black Squad officers at around 8:30 pm on Monday, 20th April, 2009, at his home.

Sutherland visited Searchlight on Tuesday, 21st April, and related his story. According to the former national footballer, he had just ridden home on his bike, and was carrying a back pack which contained a gallon sized bottle of water. Sutherland said he was standing at his gate when he was approached by a group of police officers who had alighted from a vehicle.

“They ask me what I have in my bag. I told them I have water in my bag. They throw me up against the vehicle and start to search me,” he said.

“They see like my mouth wukin’ up (moving), so they grabble my throat and start choking me off,” he said. Sutherland alleges that four of the officers pinned him down on the vehicle and beat him several times with pieces of steel about his arms, back and buttocks, leaving the areas swollen and scarred. He said the officers also pointed guns at him and called him a crack head.

“They say, ‘Watch you, watch you, you ain see you look like a crack head’,” Sutherland said.

Sutherland, who says that he did not have anything illegal on him, says he is still at a loss as to why he was allegedly searched and beaten. “I ain’t worth that kind of treatment because I ain’t had nothing illegal,” he said. Sutherland, who describes himself as a “cool” person, said that he did not fight back during the episode. “Nobody ever know me as a fighter. Since I know myself, nobody could ever say me and dem fight,” he stated.

When Searchlight contacted the Police Public Relations Office in connection with the incident, a representative from the department said that a complaint had been filed and an investigation is taking place. (OS)