Mother criticizes police for ‘traumatizing’ her daughter
Picture provided by Julene Soares
A mother has criticized police authorities for forcing her 13-year-old daughter to get in their van after the teenager failed to present her Macau Resident Identity Card (BIR) during an ID inspection.
Julene Goitia Soares, who is a Portuguese citizen and a local resident, said that her daughter was traumatized after being stuck in the van with several detainees. She argues that this was a case of police abuse.
According to Soares, her daughter started crying after the officers forced her to get in the van; despite the minor explaining to them that she is a Macau resident but did not have her BIR with her.
“She called my husband […] and while she was explaining, the police just grabbed her arms and just put her inside the police van,” she stressed.
Soares rushed to Praça de Ferreira do Amaral where the authorities were waiting for her, and explained that she holds the minor’s BIR as she was afraid that her daughter might misplace it.
“When I arrived, I just asked the police, who arrested my daughter? I just wanted to know names [but] no one answered me,” she said.
However the authorities have threatened her saying they will not entertain her if she keeps shouting at them.
“Of course I’m angry,” she told the Times. “I just received a call that my daughter is inside a police van, how could I react?”
When Soares asked them if they could leave, she claimed that one police stood at the door of the van, blocking her daughter to exit the vehicle.
“I asked them if someone can speak Portuguese. They said no. I told them if no one can speak Portuguese here, how can my daughter not be scared [when] no one explained what’s happening,” she said.
The mother stressed that her daughter is unable to speak Cantonese. She also revealed that the policemen started laughing at the minor after she started to cry.
Although the authorities told her there is “no problem” with what they did, she says that it was wrong for them to hold the minor in the van with several strangers.
“They didn’t even ask [for] her parents’ phone numbers,” she stressed. “They don’t care!”
Soares has filed a complaint to the police authorities and reportedly will have to wait 45 days for a response.
She revealed to the Times that she plans to legally file a case against them if she is not pleased with the authorities’ response.
“They need to apologize and they need to do something to the people [policemen],” she demanded. Lynzy Valles
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Be thankful, the cops did not rape your daughter.
If that had been a mainland Chinese girl, she would have been raped and her body
dumped in the harbor. Happened a few times in past years.
a non story —- she failed to produce id for police check ( as we are all legally required to ) ,, police detain her until they are able the ascertain her identity .. the fact that she is a minor is irrelevant , minor can also be an overstayer . Its seems a bit arrogant to expect her daughter to be treated differently from those already detained in the police van . Lesson from this ? .. carry your id at all times , try to learn the local language rather than expecting people to speak yours and finally if you want a better response from the police don’t shout at them treat others with respect and you will be treated the same
This response feels more at home in a Donald Trump rally.
How is this a non-story? This is information any parents in Macau should be aware of should their adolescent or teenage children be stopped by one of these searches. Also, why is it arrogant to assume that a child’s safety should take precedent over standard procedure? She committed no violent crime and if the parents are given the benefit of the doubt, then it would be reasonable to assume that the police would consider her status as a minor prior to placing her in a van with grown adult men, let alone grabbing the young girl and forcing her in and then seemingly mocking the girls fearful reaction. There are certainly allegations here that should be of public concern.
it was a just a id check (one of hundreds carried out around macau everyday) and not a ‘ search’ ..why make a fuss about it ? She may be a minor but how was the police to establish this without any means of identification
and how was her safety ever at risk ?
Her version of the events suggest that she did not feel safe. That alone, given this is a minor involved and not an adult, is enough of a concern. Situations involving minors require special handling and is expected. After all the police should be a source of protection, not a source of fear.
Granted coddling would not be expected, but failure to explain her detention or to find a way to do so is unacceptable, let alone manhandling the girl as suggested in the allegations. The language issues are also moot as these traffic stops that PSP conduct are largely planned and the targets are not locals but generally illegal or overstay individuals who often speak, Mandarin, Tagalog, Indonesian, English, and occasionally, Portuguese. So not having an interpreter prepared to work these stops is a serious failure.
So if this was indeed a search, and there was no intent to arrest the young girl, there should have been an attempt to reach the parents immediately, an attempt to explain the situation, and when the parents arrived, despite their temperment, they should not have obstructed access to her. After all, if there was no intent to arrest and she posses no immediate obvious risk to the public or herself, there was no need to further detain or unnecessarily delay her release once her parents proved her identity. That behavior can be seen at the least antagonistic if not abusive, which is unbecoming of any officer of the law.