Police laugh at woman in scary street encounter

THE EDITOR: I would like Police Commissioner Gary Griffith to address an issue involving the police.

At about 6 pm on Saturday a young woman was walking in the vicinity of Hillcrest Drive in Diego Martin when she was heckled by a man in a white Almera, who assumed she was “a Spanish.”

She said something like “I’m local” and proceeded to a fast food restaurant. Fifteen minutes later she emerged and the same man in the same car came back down Hillcrest Drive and continued to taunt her. As a woman, this irked me.

After he drove off you could see the woman was upset and she got on her cellphone. I could hear tell the person on the other end what had transpired.

Not too long after I heard her say, “Clearly the police are not interested in assisting women in matters such as this,” and disconnected the call.

I asked her what was wrong. She said years ago she and another woman were trapped in the back seat of a car that had the child lock on. Luckily they were able to overpower the man and get the attention of a driver in another vehicle. She has been left traumatised since then, it appears.

When I asked her how the conversation with the police went, she said they laughed at her.

So imagine, a scared woman calls a police station for help and she is laughed at. Can you believe that? Sorry to say there are too many cases where reports have been made to the police and they are not taken seriously. Shameful and disgusting.

I hope this reaches Griffith and he deals with it in the proper manner. What a way to protect and serve!

SHANNON ROOKS

via e-mail