Ms Lourens said the Van Wyk couple were first pulled over in a police roadblock because their numberplate was not attacked to the front; however it had fallen off enroute and Mr Van Wyk had put it in clear view in the front window and told the officials at the first roadblock that he would have it re-attached upon their return home. In that first roadblock the police official also assured the family that it would not be a problem as long as the numberplate was clearly visible – which is was... (picture below)
“However when the Van Wyk family car was stopped at a second roadblock, a black police officer started cursing Mr Van Wyk for a ‘white bastard’ and cursed the entire Afrikaner family with foul and very crude language while writing a ticket. Mrs Van Wyk, angered by these crude insults, tore up the ticket and they drove on. A few kilometres further down the road, the Van Wyk vehicle was suddenly surrounded by a large number of police vehicles and forced off the road. Mr Van Wyk was physically dragged from the car after he told the police he did not want to abandon his family in such an unsafe place and would rather follow them to the police station. Mr Van Wyk was then assaulted, and forced at gunpoint by a police officer to lie down,” wrote Ms Lourens.
“You have killed my daddy…’ shouted the weeping child Ms Lourens continued:
‘One of the small Van Wyk children then jumped from the car, thinking that they had killed her father, and beat at one of the officers with a small plastic toy golfing stick, shouting that they ‘had shot her daddy’. Mrs Van Wyk was in hysterics and tried to get out of her seatbelt while the officers were assaulting her, trying to drag her out of the car. Mr Van Wyk then jumped to his wife’s defence, shouting for them to leave his wife alone. Family friend Lee Mark was meanwhile sitting inside the car, holding the little Van Wyk boy close to his chest to protect him. Another police officer then stuck a gun inside the car, and held it to Lee’s head, ordering Lee to ‘shut the children up’. An eye-witness at the scene who was taking photos and videos with her cellphone also was threatened that they would confiscate her phone: and they broke her keys when trying to rip them out of the ignition while Mr van Wyk was still being beaten repeatedly in the face before he and his wife were handcuffed and taken to the Brits police cells. He was there forced to undergo blood-tests which will only be available in July, the police claimed at the charge-office. Mr Lee then took back the family car to Brits with the three Van Wyk children, taking them to a family-member for safekeeping,” wrote Mrs Lourens.
She spent hours on Christmas Day, trying to get the Van Wyk couple released from the Brits police cells. Initially the SAPS even denied that the Van Wyk’s were arrested and inside. It took her three hours before she could reach officials at the cells by phone.
Police officers told 14 black detainees in the Brits holding cell: ‘we have brought you a Paulina to rape…’
Lourens wrote: “While driving the cells, one official had pushed Van Wyk’s head outside the window while other officers were constantly beating him against the ear and his head while cursing him constantly. He then was taken to Cell 11 of the Brits police station where the black officers told the 15 black detainees inside that they had brought them a ‘Paulina’ for the weekend and that Van Wyk would be raped until he had ‘learned some manners’ . Van Wyk said he then was subjected to a constant stream of threats of rape and also called “Paulina’ by the detainees who demanded that he send out for cigarettes for them or he would be gang-raped. Meanwhile Mrs Van Wyk was also accosted in the female-section cells because the black women detained there tried to rob her jewellery. She hid her earrings underneath her tongue.
SAPS at Brits denied any knowledge of the arrested Van Wyk parents:
The Freedom Front councillor said that she tried to reach the police station at Brits from 8pm to 11pm by telephone that night and finally obtained some confirmaiton from officials at the cells after the complaints-officials had repeatedly denied that the Van Wyk couple were inside the police station and had denied all knowledge of the incident. However, the official at the holding cells told Ms Lourens at 11pm that the ‘Van Wyks had already been released and were in the complaints office’.
The Van Wyk couple denied this, saying they were held until well after 11pm and that throughout their arrest and incarceration, they were not informed under what charges they were being held. The Brits police also vehemently denied they had carried out acts of brutality and had shouted racist abuse at the couple. Early the next day, the councillor went to the Brits magistrate’s court where Mrs Van Wyk had been ordered to appear purportedly to face charges of ‘interfering in an arrest’ and ‘malicious damage to property". While she waited in court, Mrs Lourens obtained the video material and photographs from an eye-witnesses there -- and went to the Brits police station commander with it.
“A person in civilian clothing at the Brits police station then tried to convince me that the Van Wyks were ‘distorting the case’ and that there had been ‘no police brutality,’ she said. “However, when I informed him of the visual evidence he fell silent,’ she said. “I informed him that it even looked from the videos as of an article was taken from the vehicle and placed inside the pocket of an official. I also told him that when Mrs Van Wyk was plucked from the car, her cellphone had fallen out of her pocket, and that an official, dressed in black civilian clothing, then put it in his own pocket. Mrs Van Wyk then demanded her cellphone back and fought with this man who then returned it”. The official then left. Within ten minutes the Van Wyk couple phoned Ms Lourens – informing her that the case against them was dropped.
The Freedom Front Plus councillor said however they are not letting this incident rest - they have in turn already initiated proceedings against the traffic officials and the police officers. “What is so worrying is that whenever there is a real emergency, the police claims that they have no vehicles available or officers to respond to the scene. However it was clear that there was no shortage of officials nor vehicles. And the racist comments coupled with the brutal behaviour of the police is not in line with the official “Batho-pele’ policies of the SAPS, which claims that they ‘put people first’. Clearly these Batho Pele principles posted above the door of this police station, hold no meaning for those officials’. She called on the community to inform them of any police violence and racist actions by officials.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEOS:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477503396215&oid=187645864452
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Censorbugbear-Reports/116752351671946#!/video/video.php?v=477503396215&oid=187645864452&comments
Know your rights: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477503396215&oid=187645864452#!/notes/vryheidsfront-plusfreedomfront-plus/wat-is-my-regte-/10150114994464
