Friday evening in the Mesopotamia area was heated with unrest as police special constable Ken Emmanuel was wounded and a family of mostly females from the king street area say police made them suffer for it. The women of the Bradley clan on King street claim that police bullied, brutalized and intimidated them after their sister's boyfriend became the prime suspect in the injury of the police officer:
Jules Vasquez Reporting
The police claim that a special constable Ken Emmanuel was assaulted with a two by four here at this corner. But Minerva Bradley says that Emmanuel’s drunken advances are what started it all:
“This brown skinned person said: girl what is going on with you. So I watched him and he said: you don’t know me then? I said: I don’t know you and he said my name, Minerva. He said what it going on with you sketel? So Emmerson came down from where he was and he asked him why he was disrespecting his girl? So he said what’s the problem? Do you want beef? Do you want beef?
Q: “Who said this?”
“Ken, the policeman. At this time we did not know this man was a police. But he was drinking at the corner of the late with another man.”
Q: “In civilian clothing?”
“In civilian clothing. He was asking Emmerson if he wanted beef. So Emmerson pulled out a piece of two by four and he made to knock him but at that time my sister went to stop him so Emmerson throw down the board and he got the board and when he did he whopped at Emmerson. Emmerson then ran. So when he made to whop Emmerson I went to stop him and when I did this he took the two by four and he whopped me. So I could do was like (raising hands) this and when I did this that is what made me get this cut in my hand. I got four stitches here.”
Police say that sometime during that exchange special constable Emmanuel was injured when the nail from the two by four went into his back. They said that Emmerson Arnold was responsible and descended on the home of his Minerva’s family looking for him. Ann Marie Bradley was on the sidewalk when she claims she was literally pulled into the tangle:
Ann Marie Bradley
"This officer, Geban he came by himself and when he came he approached us, me and my sister Stephanie Bradley. We were standing by the gate along with my mother. When he came said: shut you mouth up don’t be saying this or that and he began to say a lot of things right. So we tell him: we are not talking to you, whatever we have to say we are saying it to ourselves so don’t come and tell us to shut up our mouths. So from there my sister asked him what his name was and he just hit her in the face. I asked him why he knocked my sister because he had no right to knock my sister.
Q: “He hit your sister?”
“He punched her to the side of her face.”
Q: “And you are saying he did this for no reason other than the hard talk you all were having with him? She didn’t attack him or anything?”
“From that when he hit her. I asked him: why did you knock my sister for? What right do you have to knock my sister now? So he turned to me and he stamped me below my stomach. When he stamped me below my stomach, I went backward and I fell on my butt and I got up back. When I managed to get up back then I attacked at him and I hit him on the shoulder. So I tell him why did you knock me for? You have no right to knock me. Then this police officer he already had me held with his gun at me. He had me in my hair with the gun pointed at me. Another police officer came and told me not to move or try to fight him or else he would have to shoot me. From there I did not fight them and I just left them to do their jobs. I started to fight back after he started to drag me by the hair. Hurting my head. Then my mother managed to pull my hair out of his hand and when my mother did this he stamped my mother. And my mother fell on the sidewalk.”
That’s where her sister Tricia picked up the sound of the ruckus and tried to intervene:
Tricia Bradley
“I heard banging on the fence because the fence is made of zinc. So I went to see what was happening so I tiptoed and I peeped over the fence and I noticed that they had her by her hair and this officer, Geban, at the time he was pulling her all over the sidewalk. Because he wanted to take her in and she didn’t want him to take her because she didn’t do anything.”
“So I went inside to get my camera so I could tape this as evidence of how the police are behaving. But when I stooped over the fence I did not notice that there was another officer which was Barrow. He saw me with the camera so he sent two other officers upstairs to get me. So I couldn’t get any footage on the camera and when they came this other officer he came from behind me and he began choking me. Delmar came behind me and Moguel and him they began choking me. But I didn’t let go of my camera so Barrow he came and he took the camera and he was pulling it but he couldn’t pull away the whole thing because I was holding it by the strap. So he broke it and I still didn’t let it go. So he began pulling it until finally he got it out of my hand and he began to just break it up into pieces. All this while he was choking me and he picked me up him and another officer picked me up off my feet and he choked me and he carried me from the front of my door in the yard and took me on the street.”
They arrested Tricia and after holding her in detention all weekend on minor offences charged her this morning. For this family there is only one conclusion.
Tricia Bradley
“There is no justice because if the policemen they need to learn to deal with the public differently.”
Minerva Bradley
“All I want to say that if anything should happen to Emmerson if they find him missing or dead it will be the police because he has no problems with nobody. And the last thing they said before they left the yard and the hospital is that they will find him in the morgue. We will find Emmerson Arnold in the morgue.”
Police press officer G. Michael Reid said that the women are the ones who assaulted officer Geban and he has the bruises to show for it. As for the special constable Ken Emmanuel, he has been treated and released for an injury to his back. Reid says an internal affairs investigation is afoot, and if Emmanuel's drunken-ness had anything to do with it, the charges against the Bradley women may be dropped. What are those charges? Well, Tricia Bradley, Stephanie Bradley and their mother Ruth Ferguson appeared for various charges including obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest, assault of a police officer, aggravated assault of a police officer and using insulting words against a police officer. All three women received bail of 1,200 dollars. There are more charges for Emmerson Arnold and Ann Marie Bradley will be taken into police by their attorney on Wednesday.