‘See it? Say it,’ senior lawyer urges medics on suspects’ injuries

Attorney-at-Law Andrew Pilgrim is raising serious questions about the silence of public medical officers on alleged issues of police brutality.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Pilgrim questioned whether the doctors brought into police stations to attend to injuries suffered by suspects whilst in the confines of police precincts had “something to answer for”.

President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), Dr Lynda Williams, however cautioned the prominent criminal lawyer about casting such broad and “dangerous” aspersions on issues that could cost some doctors their licence to practise medicine.

Pilgrim’s sentiments follow two recent incidents that resulted in the death of a male suspect and injuries to a female suspect, reportedly whilst both were in the police custody.

“It is so rare you hear that any one of them [doctors] report any infelicities on behalf of the police. Yet, you have thousands of members of the public saying they are being beaten, they are being tortured. You have to really wonder if these people have something to answer for,” Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY.

“Is it that all of these Barbadians who say they are being tortured or beaten are lying and that the doctors have never seen a case of beating?”he asked.

Pilgrim recalled the troubling case of Nazim Blackett, 20, who was pictured in a bloody cell in the District ‘A’ Police Station in 2017. Reports later surfaced that the young man had suffered internal injuries and bleeding of his lungs.

“No doctor has yet come forward and said what happened to him or why he was in this condition, but surely there was an obligation on the part of the police to have carried him to the doctor, either before or after we complained,” said Pilgrim.

“So I feel like people who hold these positions have a very high responsibility. You are there to protect people from any injury coming to them while they are in the police’s hands and if you never hear a doctor making such a report, you must feel like bajans never get beat yet, ever, because doctors are supposed to be seeing them,” he added.

One doctor who spoke on condition of anonymity however told this newspaper that in every instance of alleged police brutality, they have to consider the word of the suspect against the words of the officer.

The source explained that in some instances, it is clear that the injuries complained of are significantly exaggerated while in others, it is unclear that the injuries truly occurred whilst in custody.

“Let’s say for example that a suspect is being chased by the police during an arrest and he falls and gets injured and then he comes to me and says that the police did that. Or perhaps, when he was being arrested, he put up a fight and he got injured and he said the police did that. Is that police brutality? That is my dilemma,” the doctor explained.

“I am not a lawyer, I am not a magistrate and it’s one person’s word against the other very often, and in that position, you would not expect a doctor to come out and make some sort of judgement,” the source added.

The doctor noted that when such matters land in court, they are better-positioned to present the facts.

“Whoever asks for the facts, whether in a medical report or in the court, we will tell it as we see it. We state what the injuries were and it is not usually a case where we see the person before they go into custody to make a comparison,” said the medical practitioner.

In a subsequent statement, Dr Williams confirmed that all doctors are called to uphold the hippocratic oath, which, among other things, binds physicians to a promise to do no harm and advocate on the side of the patient.

The BAMP president said this extended to those hired by the police department to report whether the injury came about through any form of suspicious activity and be willing to defend it in court.

“I would expect that all who are called to police medical officers who would not want to lose their licence to practise in Barbados, uphold the same standard as doctors everywhere else and therefore if there is an allegation of failure on the part of any particular doctor, then that would need to be brought to the attention of those who are responsible for maintaining standards of conduct,” Dr Williams declared.

“But if there is no particular allegation being brought, I actually think that to just paint everyone with the same brush and say that they are somehow trying to make it look as though something is being hidden is a very dangerous thing to do, because you are talking about people’s reputations and characters and we must be very careful not to have prejudicial pictures of the medical community painted, unless there is a specific allegation,” she added.

Earlier this week, Pilgrim underscored the need for the development of a system that can guarantee the safety of people who enter police custody that would include heavy reliance on video.

Fellow attorney Michael Lashley, Q.C., has also called for legal aid to be extended to those in police custody, who have not yet been tried. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb