Innocent man threatened with sodomy in cells
Man vows to bring Florida SAPS to justice.
The SAPS’ once proud image is decaying.
The Record has received many complaints of police brutality and abuse of power and in the process of investigating two incidents, the latest incident does not enhance the men in blue’s PR at all.
Now Leon Cronje from Discovery also is a man with an axe to grind after more than one incident with Florida SAPS.
On 22 August Cronje’s future son-in-law Stefan Villiers was attending to two customers in Cronje’s home (Cronje is self-employed and sells a variety of items from his home) when suddenly two strangers were standing behind him. Villiers panicked, thinking they were robbers and grabbed a crossbow (that was one of the items on sale). He ordered the two people off the premises. The crossbow contained no arrow and according to Cronje there were no arrows in the house. All this occurred when the young man and his fiancée (16) were alone running affairs on their own.
In the meanwhile the two ‘intruders’ went and laid a charge of ‘pointing a firearm’ against Villiers.
Not long after, Cronje’s house was swamped with police – allegedly eight vehicles and approximately 14 policemen.
The policemen entered the house and without identifying themselves started manhandling Villiers. Cronje wanted to know what’s going on and phoned his lawyer in the interim. The ‘leader’ of the policemen identified himself as a detective but Cronje claims he later found out he was only a constable. The ‘detective’ then told Cronje he “doesn’t talk to f—–g laywers” (this the lawyer heard over the phone) and told Cronje “I am a policeman, I can do what I want”. Villiers was cuffed and his fiancée was hysterical.
As the group proceeded to go outside the policemen made racial remarks, telling Cronje that “this is not your country anymore”. (Cronje has gone on record saying it is “common knowledge that Florida Police Station is one of the most racist”.)
The family’s problems didn’t stop there. Villiers who suffers from anxiety attacks were extremely scared according to Cronje and inside the cell he started having an attack. Cronje alleges that the police refused to administer Villiers’ medication and told him that they will give it to him when they want. Cronje called 911 who allegedly also was chased away by the police.
Villiers was released later the same night. Owing to the incident and the fact that he was threatened by another person in his cell that he was going to be sodomised, Villiers was so traumatised that a psychologist immediately referred him to a psychiatric hospital where he had to stay for two weeks.
The case was thrown out of court owing to the fact that a crossbow without an arrow was used as opposed to the charge of ‘pointing a firearm’. Villiers’ name has been cleared.
Cronje has laid charges of trespassing, damage of property, false arrest and crimin injura against members of Florida Police Station but claims that they are not attending to the matter. His lawyer is positive though that he will win his case.
Cronje also claims that he has been victimised for a substantial time and it has become routine to be pulled over by members of SAPS. Cronje also received two death threats on 30 September that he suspects came from SAPS members.
Owing to space restraints Florida SAPS responds in a separate article.
We are heading speedily towards a Zimbabwe situation, where power and might is right, where no man’s individual rights and liberties are respected, and where your race is often the determining factor in state aggression. Where is Amnesty International these days?
Where is the seperate article where Florida SAPS responds? Also seems this line was omitted in the print edition? Really disappointed that the SAPS have not been given an opportunity to respond… It is important that both sides of the story are reported…