Maryland: ERU Shot Another Kid - Police Brutality

Police Brutality!



Liberia National Police (LNP) Emergency Response Unit (ERU) Monday, March February 28, 2011, responded to a peaceful protest demonstration of The Numoweh & Kudemoweh and Friends of Morais with violent and overbearing tactics, injuring at least seven protesters and threatening others. One of those injured was shot in the mouth by the ERU. His mouth was blown open and teeth torn out of his head. The kid was not in the protest. He was selling his merchandise on the sidewalk when the unfortunate thing happened to him.



Early at 8am women, men and children gathered in Bigtown preparing to protest against the Government’s refusal to give those arrested in March of 2010 a Fair & Speedy Trial. Their march was part of a national demonstration planned to take place simultaneously in Monrovia and Harper to pressure Government to either set the deatinees free or try them immediately in a competent court of jurisdiction within a period of a month.



The Numoweh, Kudemoweh & Friends of Morias protesters - including several other sympathisers - marched throughout the major streets of Harper and past the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Headquarters bearing banners reading "Free Our Sons & Daughter, Sens. Ballout, Scott, Supt. Brown & City Mayor Sampson MUST Resign.” Other placards and banners read, "These men & women have brought shame to our county and polarize us," and "We will not vote if our children in Monrovia & Grand Gedeh are not set free."




As people watched the protesters, at least 8 ERU Police officers well-armed drew closer. Joint security was also tight, with ten police guarding the entrance to the City Hall, where the Chiefs conducted a sit-in in front the city Hall from Friday to Monday.



The marchers eventually came up the hill from Hance Street between the City Hall and the Maximum Prison Compound shortly after 10am, at which point the ERU was seen dragging the Chiefs from the City Hall Exit between the Prison. Within that period, protesters were coming up the hill. The ERU commander immediately released a bullet that hit a kid right in his mouth and blew the mouth open.




The kid fell to the ground. He beagn to bleed profusely. The ERU forbided anyone to come over and pick up the kid. One could hear the kid mourning in the blazing summer sun.




The leader of the protesters urged the protesters to move under the tree and get out of the streets. The ERU threw another tear gas bomb that exploded with a huge plume of smoke. A 9-month old baby was directly hit. And he began to bleed from his nostril. The mother did know what to do. She got confused. The ERU did not stop there. It released more tear gas. The crowd got confused and did not know where to run. Chaos began to erupt thereafter.




I received the information while in Bigtown. I proceeded to the scene. That’s when the ERU commander made the remark that he and his team were looking for me to “destroy” me. I challenged him. I asked the protesters to leave and return to Bigtown. They agreed. I proceeded to the hospital to see the kid that was shot. While there, the ERU followed the protesters as they retreated to Bigtown. As the protested retreated, ERU began picking one at a time. In the end, they picked up about eight kids and put them in their padded wagons. And then to jail.



The protesters knew the movement into the streets of Harper was civil, meaning they were not breaking criminal law, and the police therefore had no right to interfere. However, from the beginning, protesters were subjected to heavy-handed policing techniques. ERU commander and the Acting Regional/County commander, Amos Darpo, attempted to arrest protesters and sieze their placards and banners, claiming they was illegal to carry them.



Two arrests for obstruction were made, the first at 10:30am. Neither of those arrested are believed to have been in the protest. After witnessing the first arrest, a protester, who asked not to be named, commented: "The police are just assaulting people. One person helped another on a motorbike to get away so a police officer grabbed the man helping the other and told him 'you're under arrest', so he moved away and they grabbed him again."



The mood turned uglier as protesters tried to save their comrades from police brutality as the police continue to slap and kick women in the butt. The crowd surged to the front of the building as women and children cry to be left alone. As protesters retreated, the officers began to use truncheons to push them back onto the grass.



A market woman said, "The policeman hit me on my temple and I fell to the floor. This happened to many protestors, none of whom were being aggressive."



A second protester voiced her disbelief at the way the event was handled by the police: 'I was near the front of the March heading towards old schools and was facing the police. They took out their guns immediately and began to strike at women and chiefs completely unprovoked. There was no space to move back and I was struck in the face, even as I called out to them to stop hitting people. Everyone was chanting 'we are peaceful, what are you?' I was then shoved up against a wall where one officer put his arm across my throat for a minute. I couldn't breathe."



All this took place as the regular Liberia National Police and Tubman University Security boss looked on, refusing to intervene. In a statement released yesterday, The Friends os Morais said: "The protests were marred by police aggression and brutality against women and traditional chiefs. When the University should have been supporting the women and chiefs message against injustice, they instead took side with the police at the City Hall, where a number of Chiefs and women were injured in unprovoked assaults."
 
I am Thomas G. Bedell working and speaking on the ground in Liberia.