Police Brutality Unchecked

One evening coming back from the Malecón (place on the sea where people hang out & listen to music or eat) in a part of town where lots of hotels for tourists are and we found ourselves in a traffic jam. In front of the Hilton hotel and on a major thru street were three policemen and a citizen interrogating and beating this young man. It didn’t matter that they were blocking traffic and for many passersby, the incident didn’t seem to faze them either. In our car, however, N. David and I stared wide-eyed with open mouths. It was UNBELIEVABLE. The young man was on the ground with a swollen eye and he kept holding up his wallet and saying, “yo soy un trabajador - no he hecho nada” = I’m a laborer and I haven’t done anything. This didn’t stop one officer from stuffing his boot in his mouth or the others from raising their batons. The most incredulous thing was that the police allowed the citizen to hold him by his neck and continue telling the young man to callate or shut up. After about 10 minutes, two other types of police came to the scene on 1 motorcycle, picked the guy up (no handcuffs) and drove off. The other 3 police and the citizen scrambled to quickly follow them. My dear hubby said they were on their way to finish the job and kill him. I truly HOPE that was not the outcome but I was bothered by what I had seen for days afterward. For those unfamiliar with the DR, there are several different police – the military, national police, transit police, and tourist police. It is also important to note that my dear hubby was telling us to stop staring and he didn’t seem surprised at all by the violence. He is from a country where the same thing happens on a regular basis so for him this is business as usual.

I know that police brutality takes place in the U.S. as well and there have been lots of innocent victims I’m sure; however, there is a justice system in the U.S. that allows citizens and residents to formally complain and take their aggressors to criminal and civil court. There is recourse and that is huge – there is no recourse here for Dominicans.