The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Please allow me a small space in your most valuable newspaper for this letter.

My name is Youthal Simmons Deleveaux, I live on Palm Beach Street, New Providence, Bahamas. This letter is a record of police harassment, which I suffered on Friday, February 28, 2014, while I was living in peaceful solitude in my bedroom.

At about 5:30pm on this Friday, police officers A and B came to my bedroom door, and officer A began to beat on the door, claiming that he was a “police officer”, (I know that it was he at the door because I looked out of a window and saw him, he was wearing a camouflage suit).

I opened the door to see what was the matter and he (officer A) pulled so violently on the door that he broke a long stay-rope which held the door to the post to protect it from wind-damage.

Officer A forced his way into my bedroom, pointing his “machine gun” at me and insisted that I get on the floor of the room. I complied and while sitting on the cold, tiled floor I was told by the officer, that he was given a “search warrant” to search the premises for illicit drugs. He did not produce any police indentification or the said “search warrant”, neither could he tell me who signed “the warrant”.

I was further told by officer A not to get up from the floor, and then he went outside leaving me there, where I remained for about five minutes. A moment later, officer B entered my bedroom and told me that I could get up from the floor and sit on a chair that was in the room.

Officer A later returned and at my request, both he and officer B gave me their names and numbers and then they left. Nothing illegal was found by the officers in my room, which is a separate unit, and “self-contained” in a building containing two apartment units.

I am now 61 years of age and I have never had anything to do with illegal drugs or guns.

Madam, I raise this question: Is this what we have come to in our country (The Bahamas), when a 61-year-old peace-loving citizen cannot live in solitude, without being harassed by the police?

YOUTHAL S DELEVEAUX,

Nassau,

March 3, 2014.

(The names and numbers of the two police officers complained of in this letter are being withheld by The Tribune. However, they will be given to the Commissioner of Police for investigation. — Ed).