At around 4:30 this evening, a heavily armed detachment of about 20 police officers, dressed in camouflage fatigue and armed with M-16 rifles, and accompanied by a K-9 dog, stormed onto the premises of a well-respected community activist and retired teacher, Carolyn Westby, claiming that they were looking for drugs and weapons.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Crispin Jeffries, who was heading the maneuver, called it a “special operation,” and told the media after the search of the premises that police had been conducting similar searches on the Southside since morning as a “pre-emptive” move, because they expect retaliation for the murder of a man who was buried today. The murder was as a result of what he termed “street rivalry.”
And while Jeffries claims that he received information that someone was hiding guns in Ms. Westby’s house, Port Loyola area representative and Works Minister, Hon. Anthony “Boots” Martinez, said he was terribly upset over what the police did to a constituent he regards as an upright community activist, and said that it was apparently an attempt to embarrass her and possibly to embarrass the Dean Barrow administration, which recently took office.
He said that he intends to meet with Prime Minister Dean Barrow tomorrow, to express his outrage over the way Ms. Westby was treated. The Minister said that he is embarrassed over what has transpired.
“Hearing of the incident here, I could have bet any money that they would not have found anything here. Also, keeping an open mind – also, in the back of my mind, I said maybe somebody tried to set up Ms. Westby. That was running through my mind. I also was wary of that,” said the Minister.
In recounting what transpired this evening, Ms. Westby said that she was sitting around her dinner table preparing notes for a mentorship program she has just started in an attempt to get young people constructively engaged, and to give out-of-school youths a chance to learn outside the mainstream programs.
Still outraged and upset over the way the incident unfolded, Ms. Westby told us this evening that she saw a police vehicle park in front of her home, but did not think that they came to her. Moments later, the officers broke through her screen door, to the left of where she was sitting, found their way through her corridor, and suddenly came up behind her. They let themselves out through her main front door, she recounted.
With her at the time was her husband, Errol Hemmans. Hemmans said that he had gone home a little bit early, a little after 4, and he and Carolyn were inside.
“I was getting my food prepared for tomorrow, starting to cook, and shortly after that the policemen came. They said they heard people were using the house with drugs and guns. It was the wrong house they came to, because we are not that kind of people,” said Hemmans.
He said that at first there was an altercation between him and the officers, because they were just barging in without a search warrant.
While the officers entered the lower flat, they did their searches on the second and third flat. Hemmans said that he gave them the keys, and the police did a thorough search of the two upper floors.
“They got on their knees and turned over a barrel and did a full check of the area,” he continued.
“I think it was wrong the way they came to the house. We did not give them a chance to explain, they said. But they came as [if] they were sure there was something there and they would take in somebody. They wrenched open the screen door,” Hemmans went on to say.
Upstairs a corporal, two privates and Brent Hamilton of the Anti-Drug Unit did the search.
“Jeffries never came there – he was in the other yard, and when he saw him he said, boy, Errol, you live there?”
Westby said that the doors of the upper flats are bolted from inside, so that is why Hemmans had to give them keys to search those flats.
“None of the officers, including Jeffries, said anything to me,” she added, saying that nobody explained to her why they were entering her home.
Her initial reaction was to “rail up” with the police, asserting to them that they had the wrong house.
“When I asked if they know who I am, the one writing said he doesn’t care,” she added.
Ms. Westby alleges that Jeffries knows her and knows that it was her house they were searching, but he did it to embarrass her because he is angry with her for refusing to be a part of the grieving mothers program the police were organizing in the area. And they took the media to make the whole thing public, to tarnish her reputation.
When Amandala arrived on the scene, Marion Ali of Channel 5, along with cameraman George Tillett, were on the scene. Tonight, we spoke with Ali to get her account, and she told us that late this evening, she received an invitation from police to accompany them on the operation. (Channel 7 was invited out to a field operation this morning, and they ran that story on their evening news.) Ali said that she did not know that she was being taken to Ms. Westby’s house, and she also did not know they were the only media that was invited out to that location.
All this has apparently unfolded while the new Minister of Police, Hon Carlos Perdomo, is away on official business. Area representative Martinez told our newspaper that when he learned of the incident, he called for Perdomo but learned he is out of the country.
“I am not the person who usually comes on police scenes,” said Martinez. “This thing is a deliberate attempt on the part of the police to embarrass Ms. Westby. Of all the people in my community, Ms Westby is a counselor, a community worker and furthermore to that as the area representative, I have always been a person coming here. The community has a lot of respect for Ms. Westby and she is also my friend….
“I can’t find the words to console her in this situation. This is a terrible and deliberate attempt to embarrass Ms Westby and one has to wonder if it’s not an attempt to embarrass the government,” he remarked.
While the incident unfolded this evening at Ms. Westby’s home, a throng of people from within the community gathered at the Wilton Cumberbatch Field, in the Yarborough area, and looked on with consternation. Many of the young men looking on said that what Ms. Westby was experiencing has been a common occurrence in the community, with police using and abusing their authority to enter homes without search warrants on the claim that they are looking for drugs and guns.
Jeffries insisted that the police do have that authority to conduct such searches, and he said that it was not a matter where Ms. Westby was singled out, but that they had received information that weapons were being hidden in her building.
“The police, and I think this is where the government has to instill [that in them] – must act sensibly on intelligence,” said Martinez, describing Ms. Westby as someone who is trying to steer young people away from crime, a fact he said the “top brass” in the community know.
Ms. Westby also tutors children in her home, and the very door through which the police entered her home leads to the space where young children are sometimes engaged after school. Fortunately, her group was not there today when the police came to her home.
Ms. Westby’s daughter, who lives at the home with her daughter, said that when she heard of what was happening, she was very worried about her mother, particularly because she knows her mom struggles with a heart condition.
She, too, was outraged over what happened, saying that instead of the unfortunate event that unfolded today, the authorities should be trying to emulate the good her mother is doing for young people in the community.
In reviewing that outcome of today’s raids, Jeffries told the media this evening that the police recovered a large quantity of marijuana in two places in the Mayflower Street area, as well as ammunition and a radio scanner from the residence of Darren Banks, who he said was arrested and charged today. They also recovered a bulletproof vest from another person, and a camouflage suit.
None of these items were recovered from the Westby home.
Minister Martinez said apart from discussing the matter with Prime Minister Barrow tomorrow, he will ask that at the next Cabinet meeting, the issue of searches without warrants be discussed, as it is evidently a matter of major concern to the community.
When we tried to echo concerns previously expressed to us and experienced by relatives with respect to similar incidents, he refused to comment, saying that he would only deal with today’s situation.
Ms. Westby was Amandala’s Personality of the Week in an article dated August 2, 2006 (Issue #2073). She is currently a counselor for Anglican primary schools, and has embarked on a new mentorship program for challenged youth.