BAPDA President Calls for Police Officers’ Termination After Mocking Video of Mentally Ill Man Surfaces

The president of the Belize Assembly for Persons with Diverse Abilities (BAPDA) is calling on the termination of the Police Officers who were involved in a video posted online. The video shows a mentally ill man taking off several layers of clothing, as instructed by the police officers. At the end of the video, the man is being mocked for wearing a bra. BAPDA president, Kenrick Theus says there should be consequences beyond internal reprimand. 

Kenrick Theus, President, BAPDA: “Actually that video came quite shocking to me and to those who called in and texted us because it was quite apparent from the get go that obviously there was something not regular with the gentleman. So the police officer should have seen that and I’m sure it’s not their first encounter in seeing him around the city so they know who they’re dealing with but it was the first time for me to see him and it went on and it progressed to the point where the police officers were obviously abusing their power basically in having him undress in that manner and even if not so then what they did to further share the video around it means that they were up to no good. Now this sort of behavior is not the first time coming from the police. They have done it before and every time it’s a reprimand, it’s a reprimand but reprimands don’t work anymore so what we are calling for now is for the termination of these officers. I think this is the only way we can get serious about this matter and for people to know in authority that when you do things as such and you try to trample on a person’s human dignity and rights then obviously there will be repercussions. And again this is not the first time that the police have been involved in something like this and I’m also sure that when that happened that they probably, they have a chat group amongst themselves they probably shared that amongst their chat group so it was funny then but when it started to leak and thats when it didn’t get funny anymore. So they know why they did it and as such these are people who are trained and sensitized we are told so they know exactly what should have happened and it didn’t happen under their watch so as such there should be consequences and beyond any reprimand or any internal tribunal. I think that it has to become standard now because they interviewed some minister and he said well they have training for human rights and all of that but it has to be more specific in dealing with persons with disabilities because there are so many different types of disabilities; those you can see, those you can’t see and as such they need to know how to respond to persons in that situation and they need to also confidentiality as to what goes on when a person is arrested that should have been held confidential that’s not something that you share around because obviously if you’re sharing it then you’re sharing it for laughs and that doesn’t help anybody and that’s not being professional nor – as a matter of fact it might not be illegal because they said it’s not illegal then it is definitely immoral and ir borders on the illegal as well.”

Theus added that there should be a law in place where organizations such as BAPDA can represent mentally ill persons in court. 

Theus says he was informed that one of the persons who were in the video is of senior rank above corporal.