‘Cops assaulted us in front
of our kids’
September 1 2014 at 08:45am
By Angelique Serrao
By Angelique Serrao
SUPPLIED
A senior
Ekurhuleni metro police officer shortly before he allegedly shoved and punched
motorist Malcolm Brown.
Johannesburg - A couple have laid a charge of assault against two
Ekurhuleni metro policemen who allegedly shoved and punched them while their
two small children looked on.
They tried pursuing
the metro police vehicle, but could not keep up as the officers were driving at
break-neck speed.
Malcolm Brown
said he was driving towards Modderfontein Road in Edenglen on Sunday morning.
He stopped at a red traffic light and in the distance saw an officer in the
road. When he drove on, the metro police officer flagged him down.
Brown said he
assumed it was a routine check and he rolled down his window.
“He raised his
voice, shouting at me and asking why I had driven through a red robot,” Brown
said.
He denied the
allegation and was told he was getting a fine.
Brown said he
got out of his car and followed the officer to give him his details as he had
been ordered to do.
Brown said that
as the officer was writing out his fine, he asked him how he could see the
traffic light from such a distance.
“He responded,
‘I am the law’. One of his colleagues then got out of the back of their vehicle
and approached me,” Brown said.
The second
officer told Brown he was the supervisor in charge.
“A third officer
then came over and starting shouting at me, saying ‘you are wrong’. I could see
that I was not going to win in this situation and requested their names as none
of them had name tags. I was then told to ‘f*** off’,” Brown said.
Brown then took
out his cellphone and shot a video of the car’s registration number. He then
approached the senior officer pointing his cellphone at him to capture his
face.
The video,
which has been posted on community crime-fighting organisation eBlockwatch’s
Facebook page, then shows the officer attacking Brown before it ends.
“As soon as I
started to film, he grabbed my arms and wrestled me to the ground. His
colleague then also grabbed me, and the officer in the film punched me in the
chest,” Brown said.
Ekurhuleni
metro police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago said that if
everything Brown says is true, then there is a problem with the conduct of the
officers. He urged Brown to come to them with the video footage and information
on what happened so that an internal case could be opened and taken to their
integrity commission.
“People fear
they will be victimised by officers if they come forward with information, but
that is not the case. It is only through community involvement we can root out
problems,” Kgasago said.
Brown
said his wife saw what was happening, got out of the car and ran to him during
the attack. She was also pushed by the police officer and was also allegedly
punched in the chest.
His two
children, aged 3 and 5, watched the altercation from the backseat of their car.
“I could hear
my kids screaming, so I grabbed my wife and ran to our car, locked the doors
and phoned the police,” Brown said.
He said his
children were hysterical and everyone was traumatised by what had happened. He
said the metro police officers then drove off with their blue lights on.
Brown said he
followed them for about eight minutes, but they were driving in circles and he
could not keep up with the speed they were travelling at. He estimated they
were driving 120km in a 60km zone.
The couple
opened an assault charge at Edenvale police station.
eBlockwatch
founder André Snyman, who encourages the public to record policemen in the
wrong, said it was a case of a member of the public chasing the police.
angelique.serrao@inl.co.za
The Star
