The Bottom, Saba – During the night hours on Saturday, January 30^th , two fights that got out of hand took place at an entertainment venue in Fort Bay. Officers, in their spare time, were in the same venue. They saw the danger of the beer bottles that could be used as a weapon and legitimized themselves as police and tried to calm the fight. The officers have asked to stop a number of times. However, the groups did not heed the orders of the officers.

The agents were therefore obliged to use pepper spray to get the fighting parties under control. However, this did not help. The groups then turned against the police and threw beer bottles in their direction. In order not to derail the situation further, two of the officers have drawn their firearms, pointing towards the ground, to take control of the situation and stop the fighting.

The police are empowered to use force to carry out their task of upholding the rule of law. The violence used must always be in proportion to the situation and the crime. This is also referred to as “proportional and subsidiary”. During a dangerous situation, the police try to de-escalate. First, the officer uses his voice to demand that the suspect do or not do something. If this fails, he or she scales up to the use of weapons; for example pepper spray. Only at the last moment will the officer proceed to take his firearm.

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