Bloody Tuesday



“Some of the students ran in my house for rescue, the police ran to the house stepped the door, they went on the children and start beating the children. All my doors them, half of my doors them they burst it, throwing rocks all over the building”.

- Watta McGill, a resident of the Bassa Community

Wade C.L. Williams wade.williams@frontpageafricaonline.com

Bloody Tuesday

Police Rain Havoc On G.W. Gibson High School

Twenty Seven Students Sustain Severe Injuries

25 Arrested

B

lood running down his head, Varney Sherriff, hid himself in the bathroom hoping to escape the wrath of angry police wielding batons. But on this Tuesday, Sheriff, a 10^th Grade student at the G.W. Gibson School on the Capitol Bye Pass would not enjoy the luxury of an escape as officers of the Liberian National Police followed a trail of blood and wreaked havoc on the young lad in his temporary hideout.

This was the scene Tuesday at several points in Monrovia when police officers tried to quell protests by students of two public schools, the G. W. Gibson High School and the William V.S. Tubman High School.

At G.W. Gibson, school registrar Peter Stevens was in awe: “Come into my Secretary’s office and see the blood! They wounded a lot of children and most of them have been taken to hospital, the police beat them and left them bleeding”, said Stevens pointing to the scene after the bloody showdown.

Stevens told reporters that the police broke the door to his office and made away with his cell phone. Some students also accused the police of stealing cell phones and money from them. “They burst the door and ran straight to my cell phone, what did my phone do to them, was the cell phone on the street demonstrating? They walked away with my phone,” the angry registrar lamented.

No escape for bleeding student

Reeling from his hideout, student Sheriff said police beat him and his peers with sticks including rocks. “We locked our building then unfortunately they jumped over the fence and started beating students in uniforms and as they were beating us they were searching our pockets for what we had”.

Watta McGill, a resident of the Bassa Community area told a bystander that police entered her house, and broke down her doors because they alleged she was harboring some of the students. “Some of the students ran in my house for rescue, the police ran to the house stepped the door, they went on the children and start beating the children. All my doors them, half of my doors them they burst it, throwing rocks all over the building,” narrated Watta.

Students of the rioting schools, according to reports gathered, took to the streets to protest the absence of their teachers from the classroom.

Horrifying response

The LNP’s response horrified those who witnessed the incident. According to eyewitnesses on the scene of the violence, police used excessive force to break up the crowd of protesting students.

Some eyewitnesses said police forced their way into the compounds of the school breaking the lock to the gate and some officers were seen jumping over the fence to get hold of the students whom they beat mercilessly with sticks and batons.

Students who spoke to FrontPage Africa with blood staining on their clothes said the joint operation consisted of the Police Response Unit, PSU code-named ‘Fire for Fire’ and the Emergency Response Unit ERU.

The students said that the police beat them with large sticks mainly on their heads wounding some of their colleagues seriously. “The police threw stones, so the students entered the fence so the police came and started stepping the gate, jumping over the fence and entered on the students and started to beat the students, the police was too brutal,” noted a bystander.

Twenty seven students were wounded in the incident with most of the severe injuries to the head. Among the injured taken to several hospitals including the John F. Kennedy Memorial hospital: Veronica Saydee 11-1, Isaac Williams 12-1, Oratus Nyenpan 10-3, Umaru Sillah 11-2, Mary Karpeh 10-5, George Wombo 11-1, Winston Jeh 11-3, Rebecca N. Goerge 11-4, Jestina M.Myers 12-1, Musu Dukully 11-2 and Cecelia Pokor 12-4.  At the JFK one of the injured students had a hunch back.

‘Barbaric act’ condemned

Joash T. Hodges, president of the University of Liberia Students Union (ULSU) who had gone to the JFK to see wounded students, condemned the action of the police and described it as barbaric. “We have over twenty persons who were badly wounded as a result of police brutality and I believe that that was seriously wrong and I think the police overacted,” Hodges said in an angry tone.

Richmond Neufville, Secretary General of the Liberian National Students Union (LINSU), also on hand at the JFK to view wounded students, said his organization was very frustrated over the behavior of the police. Said Neufville: “It is disheartening to see some members of the Liberia National police have been reduced to modern day thugs…. We think that the extreme measures taken by the police was just condemnable and we think that the police acted overly and the level of brutality that we see right now is not encouraging for our level of democracy.”

Police confirms 25 Students Detained

Late Tuesday, George Bardue, Police spokesman for Press and Public Affairs, confirmed the arrest and detention of 25 students, including males and females in the aftermath of the protest. Bardue said the students are undergoing police investigation and would likely be charged for rioting and sent to court for prosecution.

Bardue named the detained students as Agnes M. Bropleh, Joseph Kamara, Isaac Mambu, Dekontee Dennis, Vasco Sirleaf, Alex Zoegbeh, Michael Gaye, Zena Godfred, Favor Breward (wounded), Harris Ideal, Hawa Williams, and Evelyn J. Davis.  Others are, Rose Dekoya, Regina Cooper, Fanta Kamara, Jallah Kanneh, Jimmy Friday, Rufus Harris, Aruna Sambolah, Solomon D. Hwah, Alice Wiles, Anthony Chea, Samuel Barcon, Emmanuel S. Boley and Russel Gboweay. The police spokesman admitted that several students sustained injuries as a result of trying to escape from police arrest.

Bardue told FrontPage Africa late Tuesday evening at the headquarters of the Liberia National Police (LNP) that the protesting students engaged the police with throwing stones.

Tuesday’s incident also disrupted normal school activities at the J.J. Roberts United Methodist School in Sinkor where parents were seen hurriedly taking their children away as the protesting students from the William V.S. Tubman High School threw stones in the compound.

Parents are not sure whether to bring their kids to school or not as they have no idea when the violence will stop.

As this story went to press, the violent scenes which erupted in the early hours of Tuesday was ricocheting reactions from several quarters as students recovered from a day of blood, sweat and tears- painful reminder of yet another student run-in with police.

Esther Wea, a G.W. Gibson School 12^th grader whose hand was broken in the incident, said the police chased them to University of Liberia campus and brutalized her breaking her hand. “They beat on me, they took my purse and my phone, money was in the purse,” she lamented. But Wea’s plea came a little too late and at costly on a painful and eventful day.

Meanwhile, the CDC firmly condemns today’s overdriven, excessive and brutal use of force by the Liberian National Police who went to quiet down a street protest by public school students in Monrovia who were demanding better salary makeup for their teachers who have boycotted classes for days. Also, the party wants all public school students to exploit every lawful means in order to orderly express their grievances in a peaceful and non-violent manner.

Welemongai M. Ciapha II contributed to this story