Cops to probe Mystic Bull victim ‘not being helped’

A young woman who was allegedly turned away by police after an alleged racial assault in Hatfield on Friday was eventually assisted by Brooklyn police yesterday and internal investigations into misconduct will be conducted against the officers involved.

Meg Rametse, 22, took to Twitter on Saturday claiming she was assaulted by a white woman while using the bathrooms at Mystic Boer restaurant in Hatfield the night before.

Rametse said she went to the bathroom with a friend, but heard someone banging on the bathroom cubicle door. Thinking it was her friend, she called out. But she discovered the banging was from “a blonde, white girl” when she walked out of the cubicle.

While washing her hands, Rametse said the same blonde woman was pointing at her while talking to her friends. The blonde woman allegedly made a racial remark to Rametse and her friends.

“I wash my hands and I’m looking in the mirror and I see her pointing at me while speaking to her friends. I asked her, ‘sis, you good?’ She said to me ‘No I am not, you apes are taking up all our space’.”

Rametse said she tried to walk away from a brewing altercation, but the woman allegedly pushed Rametse twice, pulled her by her afro and repeatedly punched her in the face.

After being saved by another woman who walked out of a cubicle to stop the assault, Rametse tried to open an assault case at the Brooklyn police station.

But the black female police officers turned her away, Rametse explained.

“I told them my story and one of them says to me: ‘We’ve never had an issue with white girls here. What did you do to her?’ I broke down and she said ‘your tears aren’t going to help you’.

“So, clearly the cops aren’t going to do anything about the multiple cuts and bruises I sustained and about the trauma that I’ve obviously experienced.”

Rametse was given a medical examination form to be completed upon seeing a doctor, and a case was opened on Saturday morning when she returned, Brooklyn police spokesperson Captain Colette Weilbach told The Citizen.

“The victim is invited to lay a formal complaint against the police if she feels that she was treated unfairly. The allegations and the circumstances will be investigated internally by an officer. Disciplinary steps will be taken against members if they are found guilty of misconduct,” Weilbach said.

Mystic Bull owner, Johann Coertzen condemned the incident and said the restaurant would cooperate fully in investigations.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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