Tiffany Collie, 29, a mother of three, during a visit to the Guardian, displayed bruises to her leg and arms and stitches to her left ear.
She said that on Wednesday she left her job at SuperClubs Breezes, where she is employed as a manager, and after dropping a female employee home, around 3:30 a.m. was enroute to her own residence.
She said that as she approached the traffic light at the intersection of Soldier Road and Prince Charles Drive,
She said that she noticed a patrol car exiting St. Michael Road, as the car in front of her ran the red light, and made a right turn.
“I stopped at the light because I know the police officers were behind me. So to prevent any kind of problem, I stayed on the light. I then made a right onto Prince Charles and the police overtook me, and they made an indication that they were going to turn right near the plaza,” she related.
But, she said, after the driver of the police car suddenly signalled a left turn and pulled up in front of a two storey white and tan house, she proceeded past them.
Overtook car
Ms Collie said that she caught up with the car that had run the light at Soldier Road as she approached the corner of Sea Breeze Lane and Prince Charles Drive.
She then overtook the vehicle, she said, and looked in her rear view mirror to see whether the officers would stop the person who had run the red light, but apparently they did not.
Floodlights
When she stopped at the red light at Fox Hill Road and Prince Charles Drive, Ms Collie continued, the police car pulled up beside her, and she thought the officers were going to make a turn.
However, after they turned a floodlight onto her she said, she then parked her car and exited it.
“I said sir, what is the problem?” Ms Collie related, to which she said one of the officers responded: “We were trying to stop you and you didn’t hear a siren, you didn’t hear us blowing the horn? Why you didn’t stop?”
She told them that her car windows were rolled up and as she was playing music, she didn’t hear them. She said she also asked the officers why they were stopping her and allowed the driver who ran the red light to go free.
Brutal attack
Ms Collie continued: “Then he said to me, ‘You done piss me off. You already piss me off and if you know what is best for yourself, you will just shut up.’ So I said sir, I know what my rights are; please tell me why you stopped me.
“And that was when he put me in the headlock, drag me from around the back passenger door, around my car, hook my leg and threw me on the floor in the middle of the road between my car and the patrol car,” she related.
Ms Collie said the officer then knelt down and wedged his right knee into her back, grabbed her up by the waist of her pants, and opened the door of the patrol car.
“At this time, I was facing west, the patrol car was facing east, and this man hit my head to the railing of the car. That is how I got the four stitches to my ear. He kept hitting me in the face; saying go in the car, go in the car. How could I go in the car and I am in the opposite direction of the seat,” she asked.
Other officer ‘just watched’
“I got bruises on my leg, and bruises on my hands. I have a laceration to the back of my head right here; and he told the other officer to take my car to the Elizabeth Estates station. You know all of this time, the officer never said to me why he was arresting me and what was the reason he stopped me. He didn’t read me my rights. He said absolutely nothing to me,” Ms. Collie complained.
And all this time, she went on, the other officer just “watched. He just watched him do this to me and didn’t do anything. If I had assaulted his colleague, why didn’t he step in and try to subdue me? He did absolutely nothing.”
Taken to station
Upon arrival at the police station, Ms Collie continued, the police officer told her to go behind the counter, and she again asked why was she there.
When the officer said she was taken into custody for disorderly behaviour, and resisting arrest, according to Ms Collie, “I said, officer, I never touched this man. Look at his size compared to mine. I can’t fight a man. I work hard. I am not a criminal. I work at Breezes and I was just coming from work to go home. The police officer never told me what I did and the reason why he stopped me.”
Hospital visit
Ms Collie said the police sergeant then noticed blood on her shirt and asked if she had any other injuries.
After showing him her bruises, she said, the sergeant took her to the hospital where a doctor stitched the wound on her ear and treated her other bruises.
However, she said, he told her that she must have done something wrong for the police to have brought her there, or was she drinking?
“I told him I just came from work. I am a manager at Breezes. I have to be an example for the people who work under me. How could I be on the job walking around drinking and I have a position to uphold? Do you know what the doctor said to me, it is the persons in those positions who drink on the job,” said an irate Ms. Collie.
Mother concerned, children crying
Ms Collie said that at 8:00 a.m. her mother called the hospital to see if anyone with her name was brought in, being quite distraught over her not arriving home, and her children crying for their mother.
But after being treated at the hospital, Ms Collie said, she was returned to the police station, where she was fingerprinted “like a criminal.”
Complaint filed
Ms Collie said that after making a formal complaint to the Royal Bahamas Police Force Complaints and Corruption Unit after being released, she was told that the matter would be investigated.
She said she was also directed to the Criminal Records Office where her picture was taken.
Commissioner not available
Ms Collie said that after being referred to the Deputy Commissioner of Police after asking to see the Police Commissioner, she responded, “Why should I see the deputy, when I need to see the Commissioner?
“There is no excuse for what happened. That officer that was there had a gun in his waist, so how could I assault him? I didn’t sign any documents because that is not what had happened and that is the end of that. I am seeking the advice of a lawyer as the process goes on,” she said.
“But,” Ms Collie continued, “I am asking the Commissioner to have those officers and officers like him to put them in a department where they don’t have to deal with people. That officer has a problem and he doesn’t need to be where the public is. That officer could have killed me right there and who would have known? Now, I have three charges on me.”
Due process
Police Press Liaison Officer Chief Superintendent Hulan Hanna said that the matter had not been brought to his attention, and, “Once she (Ms Collie) was aggrieved by the officer’s behaviour, and she went and made an official complaint, she is allowing the process to work.”
The matter he said, would be investigated and he asked for Ms. Collie to await the outcome of the inquiry, after which it would be decided what course of action would be appropriate, including whether or not disciplinary proceedings against the officers would be initiated.
He said that the normal procedure for detained persons provided for them to seek legal counsel, and being allowed to use the telephone.
Also, he said, “When a person is arrested, you ought to tell them at that time what they are being arrested for and you have to communicate with them in a language that they understand so that they know why they are being deprived of their freedom at that particular point and time.
“All police officers, at the time of arrest, should tell a person the reason for the arrest and at the time they charge them, they must also tell them what they are being charged with. That is procedural,” Supt Hanna said.
By Vanessa Rolle, The Nassau Guardian
