Young father upset at police actions

A father of two is still upset, days after police demanded that he leave his children, one four years old and the other nine months old, alone in his vehicle, while being arrested.{{more}}

Auto detailer Cordel ‘Paul’ Browne reported to SEARCHLIGHT, that during a routine traffic stop, he was placed under arrest for suggesting that police ticket another driver.

Browne related that he was on his way to the supermarket on Tuesday evening, sometime after 7pm, when he was stopped in the vicinity of ACE Hardware by traffic police who informed him that his fog lights were on and he was going to be ticketed.

“I look back in my mirror and see a van and ask how come his lights dey on, if he getting a case too.”

“The policeman say, ‘You telling me who to give case?’ so because I say ‘This is a real stupid man thing’, the police man say I lock up.”

The situation took a turn for the worse, when according to Browne, the officer told him to accompany him to Police Headquarters.

“I say I not walking going barracks and leave my children inside the car, but he tell me lock up the car and leh we go.”

After further resistance and refusing to leave his children in the vehicle, together with a growing crowd of curious onlookers, the Murray’s Village man said that it was finally agreed that he would drive his vehicle to the Central Police Station with a female traffic officer accompanying him in the car.

Browne alleged that the traffic officers also ordered him to commit traffic violations to get back to police headquarters, which he refused to do.

At the station, he noted that he and his children were kept at the traffic department without a charge being laid against him, and that while there, an officer was disrespectful to him in the presence of his children, even preventing him from comforting his crying four-month-old daughter.

“I stand up holding my daughter to hush and the officer telling me to sit down. I tell him I trying to keep her quiet and he still tell me sit down.”

Three hours after the ordeal began, and with the intervention of two lawyers, Browne was released without a charge.

Browne said that he has no intention of taking the matter further because he was not charged, but believes that police officers should be more respectful to civilians.

“I didn’t have a problem with getting a ticket, because I done pay that the next day.”

“My problem is that they would try to make me leave my children there in the car and go to the station with them. That is ridiculous.” (JJ)