Just until recently, Police killings would make one or two headlines. The Police would suspend the Policemen involved and send those found responsible to another province and then the tragedy would fade away, at least for the general public.
Recent events have triggered a different reaction. There is the recent case of a San Jose de Ocoa young man, Jose Gregorio Custodia who was arrested on 17 March 2022 for domestic violence who then died. The family says he was brutally murdered at the Police station where he was taken. The autopsy has taken forever. Results are promised for this week.
On 5 April 2022, 28-year old barber Richard Báez, died at a Santiago hospital where he was taken after being beaten by Police agents in the Cienfuegos station. The family has been demanding justice, complaining all that the policemen in charge were just transferred.
And then, the more recent case of another young man, David de los Santos, who security forces at Agora Mall in Santo Domingo took in custody after a store clerk complained he had threatened her. The man was then delivered to the Police by the mall security forces safe and sound on 27 April 2022. He would be taken to the Naco Police station. Hours later he was taken to the Moscoso Puello Hospital and then the Dario Contreras where he was pronounced dead of brain trauma. An autopsy would reveal he was murdered when in Police custody. This last case is the drop of water that has overflowed the glass.
In this case, an autopsy revealed that he had died of blows received. A first Police report stated that he had died from blows he had caused himself; later that it was fellow prisoners who had injured him. Finally, after the autopsy said he couldn’t have done this to himself, the Police would have to look further into its ranks for the murderers. The mall is cooperating with the family of the victim and the authorities showing the surveillance videos.
Police brutality is not new. What is different now is that there is social media and a very connected population, and there is hope the new justice authorities will put a stop to the practice.
There is hope Attorney General Miriam German Brito can make a difference. President Luis Abinader has also shown political will to foster changing the long-standing culture of the Police. Government actions for Police reform, nevertheless, have not resulted in the desired changes.
The population continues to demand change. The media has been covering the barrage of comments as the pressure is on for a better Police.
For years there has been complacency of the Attorney General Office with the Police brutality methods and violations of human rights. There is now a local outcry for a definite revamping of the Police.
The so-called “mano dura” or tough on crime measures of the Police has not resulted in less crime. President Luis Abinader had campaigned offering the population he would reduce criminality with modern methods. The Ministry of Interior and Police is supposed to be undertaking a major overhaul of the Police. Until now, there is little crackdown on Police brutality. The ranks find protection within the Police and get transfered to another station by their bosses that see these hardline officers as useful to fight crime.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Miriam German Brito said the pattern of behavior observed in the cases of citizens who have lost their lives while being held in police quarters cannot be allowed.
She instructed the Public Prosecutor’s Office under adjunct prosecutor Yeni Berenice Reynoso to strengthen the investigations of the cases. “As with everyone in our society, this situation causes us great pain, because these are facts that cause indignation and shame,” said German Brito.
The Attorney General ordered the reinforcement of the teams of prosecutors who are investigating the recent cases in the jurisdiction where these have occurred.
Germán Brito said that the Public Prosecutor’s Office maintains the firm commitment to ensure that these cases which point to possible human rights violations and possible brutality by the police authorities are investigated with the responsibility and objectivity they deserve, to bring to justice those responsible, no matter who they are.
The spokesman for the Police says the government has plans to install surveillance cameras in the Police stations for better controls.
The low credibility of the National Police is under fire after the deaths of the three young men in custody of police officers in disturbingly similar circumstances. A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #PolicíaNoMeMate is a trending topic.
Minister of Interior & Police Jesus Vasquez says the agents involved will be cancelled once the investigations conclude. Whether these officers will be tried is yet to be seen.
Former President Leonel Fernandez has spoken out with outrage against the actions. A story in Somos Pueblo recalls that during the Fernandez administration, just from 2008 to 2010 when Guillermo Guzman Fermin was in charge of the Police, there were more than 1,300 cases of suspect Police killings of persons during their detention at the Police.
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4 May 2022