Last night we showed you victim of police brutality, 24 year old Ryan Requena. Well, the senior command has been acting decisively on his complaint and the after-shocks of his case are only now being felt at the very top of the San Pedro Police formation. For his role in the beating, ASP Humberto Pat, the officer in charge of San Pedro was ordered to hand over command of the formation today. He has been suspended from duty and placed on half pay.
5 of his officers will also receive letters informing them of their interdiction, and that is expected tomorrow. So that means that as a consequence of the Requena beating, 6 officers or about one-quarter of the force assigned to San Pedro have been or will be placed on interdiction. Assistant Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie confirmed that they will all be replaced and Sergeant Wade has been put in charge for the time being.
As the pictures show, it is one of the most hideous cases of abuse that’s been photographed. The excessive, sadistic cruelty may have to do with the fact that, according to Whylie, the investigation showed that the officer in charge, ASP Pat, not only permitted but participated in the beating. And that may be for a very personal reason. You may recall that Requena told us police detained him because of a misunderstanding he’d gotten into between a man who was fighting with his wife? And that he ended up punching that man? Well, turns out, “that man” was ASP Humberto Pat.
And while that’s no justification at all, it does explain Requena’s claim that police then went to search his home and, he says, plant marijuana there – which led to his detention and then the beating. And it’s because of those suspect circumstances that police have decided to drop the charge of drug possession against Requena. But while his case has gotten major traction, Ryan Requena still can’t go back to work, is still in pain, and a family member tells us, is still reserving the right to sue police.
