He stood up for his brother and for that a high school student claims he was brutalized by police. To top it off, he is the one now facing criminal charges. Instead of returning to school after the Independence Day holiday, this morning 17-year-old Haneef Lemoth appeared in family court where he was arraigned for assaulting a police officer.
The fourth form student says it all started yesterday evening around 6:30 on Caesar Ridge Road when he saw a team of about 8 officers searching his older brother. Haneef intervened and that is when he says he met the ire of the officers, with a hand to his neck.
Haneef Lemoth,
"Upon trying to put down my bike, I let my guard down right and he grabbed me by my throat and slammed me into my friend's fence and when he slammed me, he was choking me, and immediately I was losing my breath. So I did what any human being would do to try to protect their own life so I just removed his hand off my neck.
Then one of them held me against, you could say they stringed me up, and then he started to use his knee and tried to hit me in my genital area right. Would you let someone hit you like that? I didn't want that to happen to me so I blocked his knee right. So then they said they were going to take me and about three of them picked me up and slammed me in the back of the car and I got hurt on my hip.
While we were in the vehicle I was asking the officers for their number, I think in the constitution its mandatory that an officer should tell you his number, and hear what those men told me is their number: 911 and 922. And when I asked them for their name, they told me their name is Babylon Bops.
They told me that I am crya crya and that I am a punk so they will charge me for assaulting a police officer in addition to the injuries they already gave me. But I know how the police do it to anybody who is from the ghetto. They make me feel like I have to live at King's Park or somewhere like that for them to treat me like I'm a citizen. But since I am a youth from the southside it looks like they don't care. They took me there, they've roughed me up, they've hurt me, and now they want to charge me for assaulting a police officer."
Wendell Lemoth, Haneef's Father
I always tell my sons to try and do the right thing, try not to exercise any kind of animosity towards police because law is a rule of conduct that governs a country and to try and respect police and try to cooperate with them. My sons might be wondering what is my dad trying to do with me. On one hand I'm trying to tell them to respect police, don't show animosity towards police, and this is what the police are doing. Its really discouraging.
We live in the Yabra Area. We are not murderers and we are not fools neither. But it seems like they just stigmatize and they just act randomly. As soon as they see a black youth, they don't want to reason or get any information. All they want to do is assault you. The first thing they do is put their hands around your neck and suffocate you and I am not with that."
Haneef received a bruised hip and neck. A doctor has certified the injuries as harm. Today he appeared in family court and was released on $800 bail. Because of his court appearance, Haneef missed classes today but hopes to return to school tomorrow. He is due back in Family Court on October 23rd.
The family has filed a formal complaint with the Police's Internal Affairs Division. Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid says they will investigate the complaint and that as policy, officers treat all citizens equally, regardless of where they live.
