'Seemingly overzealousness in officers to tase youths'- Skelton-Cline
'While there should be mutual respect and we should all have this understanding you don't put your hand on anybody, and you don't put your hand on an officer of the law, the officers of the law also must understanding this," he said on the Thursday, May 21, 2020, edition of 'Honestly Speaking'.
"I've said to our Commissioner before, there is seemingly an overzealousness of some of these young officers to pull out these tasers and be tasing our young people which I am not in favour of either," Skelton-Cline noted.
Over the course of the COVID-19 curfew period, the RVIPF led by Police Commissioner, Mr Micheal B. Matthews have come under considerable criticism, over the use of tasers and excessive force by its officers to arrest individuals, particularly youths.
RVIPF criticised for taser use
The most recent tasing being a May 17, 2020, incident where a young man was reportedly tased by officers while the vicinity of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
According to reports, the young man tased was with a group of persons returning to Tortola from the Long Bay Beach on Beef Island around 1:00 pm when they were pulled over by police just after crossing the bridge.
Skelton-Cline said, in that case, the taser could have been a lethal combination with the young man's wet body.
"That young man in particular, looks like he was half-naked and at least in a swim trunk probably coming out of the water, can you imaging what an electrical bolt coupled with a wet person can do? That is lethal!"
He said respect is needed from both perspectives; the community and the officers, "We have to do a better and a more sober job if we are going to live in peace together," he said.
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