ST. PETERS--Police officers violently broke up a gathering of several men on Soursap Road in St. Peters late Wednesday afternoon after they were ordered to go home and refused to do so.
The men were socialising at the location and a community police officer ordered them to go home in accordance with government measures aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Police say the men refused these orders and threatened the officer, who called for back-up.
Cellular phone footage taken by one of the men at the scene depicted a man moving a chair in front of the gate of a residence. He proceeded to sit down while he and several others said harsh words to the officers who had arrived as back-up.
Several voices were speaking almost simultaneously. One of the men called the officers “useless”, another described them as “a set of hungry dogs”, while someone else told the officers to “find something better to do.” A man was heard in the video saying, “Don’t cross that line neither. Stay where you be.”
An officer – who was wearing a face mask and holding a baton – apparently heard the man who told officers not to “cross that line”, because he was heard asking, “cross what?” The officer then walked over to the group of men.
The officer appeared to be telling the man in the chair to go home and the man seemed to respond that the gate he was sitting in front of was his home. The officer told the sitting man “my bad,” then turned to address the other men at the location.
At that time, a police vehicle arrived at the scene and a police officer and a Royal Dutch marine stepped out.
In the commotion of the event, a dog in the resident’s yard started barking aggressively and growling in the direction of the officers. One of the men was heard trying to calm the dog down.
The officer who had arrived with the marine spoke to some of the men. He told a man to “go inside your yard.”
The arriving officer then told the men, “Hold your dog because trust me, if it comes out here, I will put it down.”
This statement seemed to aggravate some of the men and they started to argue with the officers on the scene. Two other officers wearing dark blue uniforms and wielding batons approached the men. However, the men did not back down. The officers swung their batons and hit the men. It was at this point that the man filming the scene ran away and ended the video.
Eventually, police dispersed the men. Police said on Thursday that no one was arrested in this incident.
“The public of St. Maarten is again being requested to adhere to the measures that have been issued by the prime minister … Group gatherings of more than five persons on the public road, in the vicinity of businesses (including restaurants, bars, gas stations, etcetera) and other places, are strictly prohibited and will be immediately dispersed. Non-compliance can lead to fines or arrest,” said police in a press release on Thursday evening.
