Cops brutally beat unarmed, handcuffed man in Kingstown
The St. Vincent police force is facing intense public backlash and mounting demands for immediate suspensions following a shocking video which emerged on Facebook that shows six plainclothes officers severely beating a handcuffed, unarmed man.
This brazen display of excessive force adds a deeply concerning dimension to an island already grappling with a critical surge in gang-related violence.
The distressing footage, recorded shortly after midday near the Kingstown market and Coreas city store, captured an unarmed, topless man attempting to defend himself against a violent assault by law enforcement. During the altercation, officers repeatedly struck the restrained man with a police baton across various parts of his body, punched him multiple times, and ultimately lifted and slammed him into the back of a police transport vehicle.
At one point during the beating, an officer even appeared to draw a service weapon.
The event, which took place on the public holiday of Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day, has ignited widespread fury among citizens. Outraged social media users have argued that the officers’ treatment of the restrained man resembled the actions of “rogue bandits” rather than sworn public protectors, regardless of what initially triggered the encounter.
Currently, the police force has not issued an official release addressing the incident.
This excessive use of force compounds a growing national crisis; the island’s severe upsurge in violent gun crimes recently prompted a UK travel advisory warning tourists about local gang violence.
Highlighting a potential pattern of systemic impunity, prominent lawyer Jomo Thomas publicly condemned the incident on social media, demanding the immediate dismissal of the six officers involved.
Thomas connected this caught-on-camera brutality to a broader lack of judicial accountability, citing a recent case where he represented an accused man whose forehead was busted open by police officers.
According to Thomas, when he raised the issue of his client’s injuries before Chief Magistrate Colin John, Prosecutor Cato dismissed the complaint, arguing that the court had only heard an “allegation”.
Thomas recounted that the officer responsible stood in the courtroom with a “smug smile,” while both the Chief Magistrate and the prosecutor maintained that it was not the court’s duty to investigate such allegations of brutality.
In a pointed and cynical response to the newly surfaced video, Thomas remarked, “I guess this brutality of a handcuffed accused, caught on camera, is also an allegation”.
Video can be viewed here