BROWN'S TOWN, St Ann: Cops arrest man, Errol Nisbeth for taking their photo..."Hey bwoy, delete mi picture out a yuh phone," was the response of the policeman.

Tuesday, December 02, 2014    

BROWN'S TOWN, St Ann — Errol Nisbeth, an information technology professional and founder of the St Ann 360 advocacy group which operates a website and Facebook page that highlight happenings in the parish, said he was recently arrested after taking a photograph of a group of policemen talking to a handcart vendor in this town.

The offending photograph taken by Errol Nisbeth that landed
him in trouble.

Nisbeth said that on Saturday, November 22 he was in the town, where he has lived for several years, when the police who were carrying out their duties 'caught his eyes' and he decided to take a photograph for his page. However, immediately after taking the photograph with his cellphone one of the policemen demanded that it be deleted.

"One of the policemen walk over to me and ask if mi just take a picture," Nisbeth recalled. He said he answered in the affirmative and asked if it was illegal to do so. "Hey bwoy, delete mi picture out a yuh phone," was the response of the policeman. Nisbeth said by then he had started to record the exchange on the same phone. He was subsequently searched, apparently for weapons, placed in a police vehicle and whisked away to the police station.

A photograph that Errol Nisbeth captured
of himself while in police custody

"When I reached to the police station they handcuffed my hands to an overhead shelf," he said, adding that he was kept in that position for about three hours after which he was granted bail on a charge of 'obstruction of justice'.

Nisbeth told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the policeman told others at the station that he was taking a photograph of them while they were carrying out an operation. A policeman at the station, he said, told him that: 'Bwoy yuh out of order fi a take picture a police'. more