Image: Terry Norton
Award-winning actress Terry Norton was "dragged" from a Cape Town beach to a nearby police station by a Metro police officer for walking her dog without a leash and was held in a cell - dressed only in a bathing costume - with two men. Police have confirmed that a probe into the incident is underway.
The police officer, who confronted Norton because her pet Boston terrier, Oprah, was not on her leash on Camps Bay beach, grabbed her by the arm and "dragged" her away without giving her a chance to get dressed, a shaken Norton told Weekend Argus. The incident had left her "bruised and traumatised", Norton said, adding that it had taken place in full view of her son and holiday-makers breakfasting at nearby beachfront restaurants.
Although dogs are not allowed on the beach after 9am, Norton, a multi Fleur de Cap award-winner, said the incident had happened at 8.45am. "My
son Vincent and I were walking Oprah on the water's edge, minding our own business when we heard someone shouting at us from behind," Norton said.
"It was a policeman who confronted me about my dog not being on a leash, but by then I already had Oprah in my arms," said Norton, who claimed the same man had had a run-in with a friend of hers on the same beach a few days earlier. The police officer demanded her name, but she was reluctant to give it to him as "I felt I had not committed a crime. But he was incredibly aggressive, pulling and shoving me across the beach towards |the road to the police station."
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Three more Metro police, two men and a woman, arrived to see what the commotion was and accompanied them to the police station, she said, adding that throughout the ordeal the police officer "was hurling racist remarks at me". "I gave my dog to my son and told the policeman to take it easy and take his hands off me because I would not resist and would accompany him |to the police station where |we could sort things out," |she said.
"But the policeman was pushing and shoving me all the way to the charge office," said Norton, adding that she was refused permission to contact a lawyer. "Instead I was bundled into a holding cell in which two men had already been locked up. It was 3m by 1m, just a passage really. And it was filthy and the floors were wet." While this was happening Norton's son put the dog into their car and then contacted a family friend to ask for help.
Inside, Norton's humiliation was continuing, with a policewoman "body-searching me even though I was wearing a bathing costume". "They were so abusive, I've never felt so degraded," Norton said. She was eventually fined R280 for walking her dog without a leash and allowed to leave. JP Smith, chairperson of Cape Town's Safety Portfolio Committee, said he had ordered an investigation into the incident.
Smith said he had emailed Deputy Metro Chief Pinky Mathabathe instructing her to suspend the officer involved in the incident pending the outcome of the investigation. "It was very unfortunate and if it comes to light that certain individuals are not suitable for their jobs then they must be redeployed or dealt with in another manner," Smith said. Police spokesperson Randall Stoffels confirmed that the incident, as well as the fact that Norton was held in a cell with two men, was being investigated.
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# posted by The Uhuru Guru @ 3:14 AM 80 comments
Actress Terry Norton was ASSAULTED by black police according to this article. (Picture and quote from the Uhuru Guru. See his website www.southafricasucks.blogspot.com)
