Family condemns Police raid

A family from Fa’atoia has criticised Police officers who raided their house, saying Police used excessive force and terrified their children.

Loreta Sinapati claimed that the Police took children and a person in a wheelchair to the Police station on Saturday, along with their older family members.

She said one child was allegedly at the station for about four hours, following the raid.

It is the second time the family has been raided this year.

The Samoa Observer was first alerted to the raid by a member of the public, who claimed to have seen children and a person in a wheelchair being taken into the Apia Police Station.

The anonymous tipster was concerned about what they had allegedly seen.

Ms. Sinapati said the Police behavior “was too much” for them.

The 25-year-old said Police arrived in the early hours of the morning when they were all sleeping.

“It was around 6:30 in the morning when they came,” she said. “We were all sleeping, some were sleeping in the sitting room and some of us were sleeping in the rooms.

“They broke in to our house, and started waking us up. They were pointing flashlights at us.”

She said they asked them for a search warrant and they showed them “a piece of paper”, saying it was a search warrant. She also said they asked for a copy of the search warrant, and were told they would get one later on.

“No-one actually saw the paper, if it was a search warrant or not, and they never gave us a copy of it.”

The whole family was asked to gather in the sitting room while Police searched the house, the unhappy mother said. “We weren’t even allowed to use the toilet.”

Nor were they allowed to accompany officers searching the premises, as had been allowed during the first raid earlier in the year.

“My husband politely asked them not to be harsh and to be very gentle with our belongings but they told him to shut up and one police officer pushed him down while he was carrying my 5-month-old baby.

“So my husband fell down with my baby and I wanted to take hold of my baby, but they pushed me back as well and they pulled my baby up away from my husband.” The ordeal left her five-year-old daughter, who has heart problems, terrified, the mother said.

She said there were more than 10 policemen in the house, with more outside. Her brother, who is in a wheelchair, was sleeping in another room with another guy.

“They went inside the room and saw that my pipili (crippled) brother was sleeping on the same bed with a guy, and they started swearing at them, telling them to wake up and to stop doing ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ actions. They assumed that they were having sex and they called him a*****).”

The mother was alarmed at what she claimed was foul language used by Police.

Her 13-year-old nephew, Sopo Vave, said he was sleeping in the room next to where the pipili was sleeping.

“I was sleeping in a mosquito net with my other cousin when I heard them waking the pipili up and [they] started swearing at them telling them to wake up,” he said.

The boy said the Police came in to the room they were sleeping in right after that, pulled down their ta’inamu (mosquito net), pointed flashlights at their faces and asked them to get up.

“I wasn’t fully aware of what was happening because I was disrupted from sleeping and I was half-awake.”

He said he stood on the side watching them search their room, and they asked him to go to the front where the rest of the family were. “I wanted to use the toilet but they didn’t allow me.” Loreta Sinapati said Police did not find anything after searching the rooms. “Then one policeman went up using the ladder and climbed up the ceiling,” she said.

“He came back down and I saw him signaling to the other policemen that there was nothing. “However, another policeman climbed up again and when he came down, he called out saying that he found something.”

She said they found four marijuana seeds in white envelopes.

They asked them to show them what they had found, and they showed them three envelopes and a leaf of marijuana.

She said they were all shocked and terrified. “I swear to God we didn’t know where they got those things from,” she said.

“They asked all of us to go with them to the police station.”

She said they asked the policemen if one or two of them could stay back and look after their kids, but that was denied.

Then, she said, they were all taken to the police station, including six children, the youngest of which was Loreta’s fivemonth- old baby. “Even my pipili brother was taken with us,” she said.

The interview with Loreta took place after they were allegedly held at the police station. She said the kids started to cry and they were hungry, and that was why they allowed them to go home.

However, a two-year-old child was still allegedly held up at the police station during the time of the interview, because she wanted to stay with her mother, who was also at the police station.

The mother added that police announced they had found a gun at their house as well, though they did not mention it to them when they were at the house.

“They just told us about that when we got to the police station. And they never mentioned that to us when they were here and they also didn’t show it to us.”

Her five-year-old daughter, Malaeti’a To’oto’o, who has heart problems, said she was so scared by what happened.

She said it was the second she witnessed the police coming in their house, which caused a “mess” at home.

“They came in and pulled me by my shirt and asked me to go to the front…I was scared and nervous.”

The Samoa Observer went to the Police station in Apia to seek comment, speaking to a couple of Police officers, who directed all comments to the Police Media Officer.

The Police Media Officer was not working on the day of the alleged incident, and the Samoa Observer has not yet been able to contact them.