Four men are in police custody tonight after they were detained in a surprise raid at dawn today. The men all live on King Street and are all from one family. Tonight their family is crying foul. They allege that the young men are constant targets of the police. They vented their frustration to Keith Swift.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Minerva Bradley says that at 6 this morning she was startled out of her sleep by police banging at her at door.
Minerva Bradley,
“They came about six o’clock. They came bang bang bang on the door. I told them to wait because they don’t have to bang on the door and break it down, I will open the door. When I opened the door three of them stood up in the front and said they came to look for drugs and ammunition. I said fine, I don’t have any of that in my house and so they can come and search. They did their searching and everything and they didn’t find anything. Fine.
Over the next side they were digging and searching over there and they didn’t find anything. So they will take everybody still. The only person they didn’t take is my sister who is across there because she has her two kids. I went. When I reached the station they said they will detain everyone and no one will be released right now. I told them I wasn’t on that because they searched and didn’t find anything. I said I wasn’t on that and if you have to profile me and deal with anything, deal with me one time because I have to go to my work because I didn’t want to miss anymore work and that is how they released me and my sister in law, due to how she is pregnant. All the rest they kept.”
Ann Bradley is Minerva’s sister. She lives next door.
Ann Bradley,
“We had a dispute in the yard, like a little argument and my little brother, Ronald Bradley, he was in the house. So my next brother told him to come outside and make us go. He went by the bridge over there and by the time he reached the bridge, Palomo they hauled up on him and they started to rub him down and thing and then people came back and told us what they did him. They started to choke him up and thing until he couldn’t even breathe. They said he got blue and all. The young man told me my brother started to get blue and he said that is unfair.
We believe that it is my brother they want to harass because they don’t have the right to lock down the whole yard for what. What did they find? Nothing. Nothing they found in our yard and they still took everyone. The only reason why they didn’t take me is because of my two sons.”
The sisters say their family is being constantly harassed by the police and they’ve had enough.
Ann Bradley,
“I really don’t like it and I think you need to say it out in the media. The media needs to say this out and let the public know that the police really are violating people’s rights and those things. Even if we are poor, we need to let them know. That is something wrong what they are doing people. Chester has to get the sense of this place and learn that not because he has his stripes he has the right to just do people what he wants.”
Minerva Bradley,
“It is like poor people don’t have any justice because they just come into your yard and do what they want.”
Ann Bradley,
“Everybody has their turn out here, that is what they need to learn and understand. You cannot come and chance people and violate their rights because you have a little position out yah. I want to know why they are doing it. If they didn’t find them in any action, if they don’t find any drugs and ammunition, what is the problem? We want to know if the Police Department has a problem against this yard. Just that we want to know.”
In response to the allegations, the officer second in command of Eastern Division, Senior Superintendent Chester Williams told us this evening that the men were picked up as part of investigations into a string of robberies in the King Street area. When we spoke to Williams at 5 this evening – none of the men had been released or charged.
