A single mother has lodged a formal complaint with the Barbados Police Service, alleging that officers entered her home while she was at work and destroyed her galvanised paling.
Shernell Blackman of Ashby Alley, Nelson Street, who staged a one-woman demonstration outside the House of Assembly while lawmakers met on Tuesday, has acquired the services of attorney-at-law Shadia Simpson to plead her case.
Blackman, 56, said she received a call on Thursday from a neighbour while at work urging her to return home because “something was going wrong” at her house.
“I got into a vehicle and came to the spot, only to find my whole back paling from Nelson Street flat down. It is more than 12 feet of paling flat down. On coming towards the house, my neighbour told me that the policeman was coming out my house,” an emotional Blackman told Barbados TODAY, adding that her neighbour said she had approached the police officers to find out why they were in the house.
“The policeman told her to let me know them own the land, and that make sure that I get the shed in the yard down by the time them come back,” reported the Nelson Street grandmother. She recalled going to Central Police Station.
“I asked the officer at the desk about it,” she said.
Blackman said he made a call and she was eventually informed that she would have to return to the complaints office the next day to file a complaint.
She also said that during this time, she was afraid to sleep or go to work because her privacy had been compromised and building materials she had bought to upgrade her house have been exposed to potential thieves.
“All this time I was asking why the police should pull down my paling, what was the reason for them to be entering my house when no one was at home?… My back door pried open, the front door was left open, the paling left open,” the government worker explained.
Blackman’s land ownership plight has its genesis in the tragic passing of her son who died after the wall on the property fell on him while they were walking nearby 35 years ago.
The woman, who has another child, said she took up residence on the unoccupied plot of land some 20 years ago by building a shed and waited for the owner to turn up.
She contended that to this day, her research across many government departments, including the land tax and archives departments, has failed to reveal any evidence of a rightful owner.
“I on the land 20 years now,” she said. “I built a house in 2014 when I got laid off. I invest in the house. I invest in the house, I was waiting for the owners to come. There was no records of nobody owning this spot. But 35 years after [the wall fell on her son], you came with four unmarked jeeps with some of the policemen with masks and guns, pulled down the back paling, enter my house, and left a message telling me make sure that I have the shed down.”
On Tuesday, Blackman took to the streets of The City, starting outside Parliament while it was in session, carrying placards and relating her situation to the general public.
After duty officers at Parliament refused her request to see City MP Corey Lane and told her she couldn’t protest with placards in the area, the determined demonstrator shouted her concerns throughout other parts of the capital.
The woman said that even as she continues to struggle with the lingering impact of her son’s death which has triggered a domino effect of health challenges every anniversary of the loss, this latest event with the police has “added fuel to the fire”.
Blackman insisted that her main concern is for the police to put back up her paling and for the rightful owner of the land to come forward and at least give her a condolence card.
After initially reaching out to attorney Simpson immediately following the situation allegedly involving the police, the mother was advised to make a complaint to the Office of Professional Responsibility and the Police Complaints Authority.
“I also advised her the night to see if she could seek accommodation by relatives or friends, and we could address it the following day because there was nothing we could have done until the next day,” Simpson told Barbados TODAY.
emmnueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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