Police footage of Linden protests viewed by Commission

Oct 03, 2012 News

As the Commission of Inquiry (COI) continued its probe into the Linden events that left three persons dead on July 18th, video footage were yesterday shown.
Constable Maxwell Grant, a police videographer, led the Commission through footage that he had recorded. There were difficulties however with the video as there was no audio.
Grant said that he arrived in Linden subsequent to the shooting and his footage followed that event.

Constable Maxwell Grant during the inquiry yesterday.

The Commission, at the inquiry at the High Court, was first shown a fire which Grant said started at the LINMINE building. The video also showed footage of policemen removing tyres, bricks, logs, old vehicles and other forms of debris.
It further showed persons reacting to policemen at the scene and when asked, Grant explained that they were of persons heckling and chanting against the police ranks.
The witness noted that the videos were taken from various points not far from the McKenzie-Wismar Bridge.
At one point, the Commission had the videographer return to a certain part of the recording to view what appeared to be someone pulling something from his waist.
The video indicated Lindeners grouped in the streets and on roof tops and sidewalks. Still, a number of protestors were seen milling on the streets.
Grant was unable to give dates or identify some of the locations. He told the Commission that he was posted in Linden to record the scene for a week and a half but returned to the city before travelling to Linden once more. The Constable repeatedly answered, “I am unable to say where this location is,” or “I cannot recall the date this was taken.”
Attorney-at-law Basil Williams, in his cross examination of the witness, noted the “inadequacies of the video.”
Williams also asked Grant if he had put together the video footage presented to the Commission and whether the images were taken from other recordings. And after getting confirmation from Grant about his week and a half stay in Linden, Williams received a positive answer when he asked Grant whether he selected particular images to shoot in the video.
Questioned why police ranks who were being heckled were not in the video, Grant said he was facing the protestors.
Williams insisted that the police video was inadequate since it only showed the protestors and their behaviour. The video shown in the morning session of the hearing had no particular images of police ranks compared to the close up shots taken of the protestors.
The video had nothing relating to an actual confrontation between the police and protestors. In an earlier line of questioning, this observation prompted Williams to inquiry whether the video was edited. Grant replied, “As a cassette finished it was replaced with another.”
Chairman of the Commission, Justice Lensley Wolfe O.J. yesterday said that the body will consider allowing the events of August 10 and 12 to be included during the proceedings.
Three protestors were shot dead and several injured in the month-long Linden protests over a hike in electricity tariffs, triggering the formation of the Commission of Inquiry which includes international legal experts.
The inquiry continues today.