Woman’s ‘trauma’ after midnight cop drama July 24 2013 at 10:37am By LERATO SIBANDA Comment on this story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE STAR Larney de Swardt, 23, and her boyfriend were allegedly harassed by two police officers. Picture: Antoine de Ras Johannesburg - Alberton resident Larney de Swardt says she spent 12 traumatic hours being taunted by police officers after she was thrown into a holding cell at Alberton police station. She said she was detained at the police station with three men for no apparent reason other than being “cheeky”. De Swardt and her boyfriend Bryan Jarrett had gone to get some pizza in Alberton at about midnight on Friday when two officers – a policeman and a policewoman – “pulled up from nowhere”. The officers immediately zoned in on Jarrett, who was on his phone, saying that urinating in public was a criminal offence. De Swardt said Jarrett had not been urinating,but he simply said: “Thank you for telling me.” The officers got very angry and an altercation broke out. De Swardt said they had started pushing Jarrett around, and at one point, the male officer went onto his knees and said sarcastically: “Please, white man, get into the van.” De Swardt took out her smartphone and started recording the incident, which was later put up on the eBlockwatch crime-fighting website. “I read their (officers’) expressions and felt that something is not right.” In one of the video clips shown to The Star, the officers shove Jarrett into the van and he bumps his head against the door frame. There is a lot of screaming from the two officers. The female officer shouts repeatedly: “Urinating in public is a criminal offence.” Jarrett and De Swardt were arrested and taken to Alberton police station. De Swardt said she was kept in a holding cell, along with Jarrett and a drunk man, for more than an hour. A third man, arrested for drunken driving, was later thrown into the cell with them. De Swardt was traumatised and burst into tears. The two officers began laughing and mimicked her crying noises, she claimed. They also refused to read Jarrett his full rights. They read De Swardt her full rights only when her father Lukas arrived. Lukas told The Star that the police told him they had arrested his daughter because she was cheeky. When Jarrett and De Swardt were released the next morning – about 12 hours after their arrest – the cops told them what charges they faced. SAPS spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the pair had been arrested for crimen injuria, resisting arrest and interfering with police duties. He said the Alberton police station manager was getting more details from the officers to establish if there was any misconduct. The SAPS website describes crimen injuria as “the act of unlawfully impairing the dignity or privacy of another person, according to the SAPS”. Chapter 2 (35) (a) of the constitution states that “an arrested and detained person has the right to be informed promptly of the reason for being detained”. – Cadet News Agency
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 16:51:01 +0000
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