Photo: Shamar Foster
Young boat captain sues Police Department
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Apr. 24, 2023
Young boat captain Shamar Foster of Ambergris Caye is suing over an encounter he had with two members of the Belize Police Department (BPD) on April 1, 2022 at the Belize City Municipal Airport while he was accompanying 18 tourists to the island. Foster, in an affidavit attached to a constitutional claim form dated March 22, 2023, says he was violently and arbitrarily searched resulting in tremendous distress and embarrassment. When he tried to film the encounter for proof that he had done nothing wrong and that he was being treated in an unprofessional and abusive manner, Foster says one officer, whom he later learned was Albert Martinez, became enraged. He narrated that the officer slapped his arm then put his hand on his gun and threatened, “you want this to get f**g nasty?” then proceeded to hit him a second time causing his phone to fall to the ground. Apart from the physical assault and threats, Foster, then a 19-year-old student of Sadie Vernon High School, says he was subjected to insulting, abusive and demeaning language. He outlines that when he asked for the reason behind the search, he was told he thought he was “smart” and should therefore state two more of his rights. When he did, Foster says he was told “You da nuh bad man, u da wa bch,” and when he insisted he was a tour guide, another officer whose name he later learned to be Linda Chan said, “me noh know if you dah wah tour guide because of how you dress.”
According to Foster, while filming the search, officer Martinez declared he would charge him for assaulting a police officer and ultimately, never found any illegal item on his person and never provided any reason for the search except to say they were acting on information.
In a letter dated May 6, 2022, Foster’s attorney, Leslie Mendez sought a settlement for $30,000 on his behalf, and the response of the Police Department’s Legal Advisor, Bartholomew Jones, was that the officers’ version of events conflicted with Foster’s and so they could not accept the offer at that time.
The next month, Foster filed a complaint at the Professional Standards Branch.
Fast forward to December 8, 2022, Foster says he was called in to provide his statement in proceedings against Officer Chan. It was until then that they learned through informal channels that “the process against Officer Martinez had concluded because Officer Martinez pled guilty.” According to Foster, he was not given any information about a sanction against Martinez. The following day, Mendez sent a letter to the Department requesting information about the status and outcome of the disciplinary proceedings, but to this date, has not received a response.
Apart from damages, additionally sought are five declarations including that the search conducted on Foster was unlawful; that the action of the police to stop him from recording the search was a breach of his fundamental rights to protection of the law and freedom of expression; that the manner in which the search was conducted violated Foster’s right to dignity and respect as guaranteed under Section 3 of the Belize Constitution, and that he has been deprived of an effective remedy because he has not been notified about any disciplinary proceedings. Finally, a declaration is sought that “… the disciplinary proceedings conducted by the Professional Standards Branch under the Belize Police Department fails to meet the requirements to provide an effective remedy to the claimant in that the process lacks transparency, independence and impartiality in contravention to section 6 of the Belize Constitution.”
Mendez today told Amandala, ”domestically as well as internationally, the standard is that when there is an allegation of a right being breached or violated, you should have access to an effective remedy. For that remedy to be effective, it has to comply with the standards of fairness, with due process with impartiality, with non-bias. So this is, as far as I know, at least in Belize, one of the first times that we’re going to look into whether or not, the proceedings before the Professional Standards Branch, one, has to even comply with those requirements, and two, if so, whether they, in fact, comply with those requirements … From our view, it really is the police policing the police when it comes to claims of misconduct. And what we’re saying is that considering that this is one of the few mechanisms that exist for citizens to be able to make a complaint with respect to police misconduct, this really shouldn’t be the case…”
The matter has been adjourned to July 5, 2023.