Opposition Leader Condemns Police Officer’s Actions in Viral Video

Another matter discussed by the Leader of the Opposition was the weekend viral video of a man aggressively being subdued by a police officer.  While the video only captured eleven seconds of the exchange, Barrow says the officer, Devon Makin, was out of line. The department or ministry is yet to issue a release on the incident, but LOO Barrow was sure to call a press conference this morning to ventilate this issue among others.  He has condemned the officer’s actions and dubbed it as reprehensible despite not being provided with the facts.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition: “We have a responsibility to correct behavior that is reprehensible and the response of the officer that, oh he’s away from his family and basically he’s frustrated is a red flag. He needs counseling. He needs help. More importantly, he needs discipline because of this type of behavior countenanced by the police top brass then we are in trouble as a nation. So we in the UDP and in larger society reject this type of excessive use of force and we condemn the behaviour and we condemn the silence of the police department top brass. I have seen in other instances where the ComPol will have police officers arrested immediately and to not even condemn the actions of Officer Makin is very appalling. So we call on the top brass to take immediate action to discipline this officer because there is no excuse for pistol whipping someone who is a suspect, allegedly. They said that the suspect was armed but yet the officer walked away from the suspect to chastise someone that was recording him. And so this type of behavior cannot be countenanced by top brass and we condemn it and call for corrective measure, discipline, counseling. We understand that people have mental health issues. The commissioner made a joke about it. It’s not a joking matter. And we understand the pressures of the job. And so counseling is certainly warranted in this instance and some type of discipline.”

As we have reported, we understand that the detainee was one of three men who were allegedly armed and chasing two minors. Two of the men have reportedly been charged.