AN ELDERLY man is the latest ex-offender to claim that he is not getting any assistance from the police as a victim of crime himself.
Seventy-two year-old Shurland Boyce, who has a long criminal record, said he had made several reports to the police but he was being ignored because of his criminal past.
Boyce said the latest complaint he made was last Sunday when a man driving a truck turned up at a derelict house where he is staying at Belleville, St Michael, dumped garbage and stole groceries and other miscellaneous items belonging to him. The man pulled out a collins, Boyce said, and ran at him when confronted.
He acknowledged that he met the alleged attacker while in prison.
Boyce said he contacted Central Police Station and made a complaint.
When officers arrived on the scene, one said, “Who it is? You?” and steupsed, Boyce said. He said he was told, however, that officers would speak to the man and report back.
“I tell them wuh he name and where he live. They never came back; I remain here hungry waiting for them. I remain here Monday and then I couldn’t take it no more and I went to Central. The officer I spoke to gave me their name and tell me when they come on that morning he would send them. They never come.”
Boyce said he went back to the police station yesterday morning “and they tell me the same thing; that I have to wait”.
He said he was upset by the response because the man that stole from him “stood up and told me unequivocally ‘man you is an old criminal the police ain’t got nothing to do with you’.
Shurland Boyce pointing to the garbage which was dumped on the property where he is living.
“We met each other in prison; that is how I come to know him,” Boyce said, adding that the man was accustomed coming into the area and stealing items from businesses there.
He said he believed he was being treated disrespectfully by the police because of his run-ins with the law. “This discrimination is purely based on my record, nothing more. I mean when they came here the policeman had out his book and from the time they see me he say ‘you again’ and the book disappear,” Boyce said.
“This is all I am getting from the police all the time. This is not the first time the police ignore me.” Boyce said he reported that a man had stolen $4 600 from him but his report was never investigated. Then he reported that a man had hit him in his mouth and knocked out his dentures and this was also not followed through.
“I gave the police the information that the man rob me of $4 600 and the police want to know where I can get that kinda money from.” Boyce said that a distinguished judicial officer had given him some of the money.
“This is wickedness,” Boyce, who came out of prison in March, said.
When contacted, police spokesman, Acting Inspector Roland Cobbler, said that if Boyce felt aggrieved by the actions of the police he should make an official complaint to the Police Complaints Authority or the Office of Professional Responsibility.
