One week after Grenadian police allegedly beat a visiting Toronto carpenter Oscar Bartholomew to death, the tourism-dependent Caribbean nation is making overtures to salvage its reputation as a safe place for foreign visitors

One week after Grenadian police allegedly beat a visiting Toronto carpenter to death, the tourism-dependent Caribbean nation has charged five officers with manslaughter and is making overtures to salvage its reputation as a safe place for foreign visitors. 

Grenada remains an “extremely safe destination,” said Tourism Minister Peter David in a New Year’s Eve statement. “ This is a tragedy on all counts … [but] Grenada still is — and will continue to be — an extremely safe destination for travellers from around the world.” 

Oscar Bartholomew, 39, died on December 27, soon after he was arrested for hugging a female police officer he had mistaken for a friend. 

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Born in Grenada, Mr. Bartholomew had been living in Canada for at least 10 years.  On Boxing Day — four days after arriving in the Caribbean nation to visit family for Christmas — Mr. Bartholomew and his Canadian-born wife Dolette stopped at the St. David’s Police Station for a bathroom break. 

When Dolette emerged soon after, Mr. Bartholomew had already been detained — his unwitting hug interpreted as assault against a police officer.  After hearing screams from within the building, Dolette saw her badly-beaten husband as he was being carried out of the building on a stretcher.  He died in hospital the next day. 

A post-mortem found that Mr. Bartholomew had died of multiple skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging.  Grenada’s police act forbids the use of truncheons except in cases of “extreme necessity” such as the escape of a prisoner, noted Bartholomew family lawyer Derick Sylvester in a Dec. 29 press conference.  Even then, police are instructed to avoid the head and hit only the shoulders, arms or legs. 

Last week, police detained two officers and charged them with manslaughter.  On Sunday, Mr. Sylvester announced that police had charged three more. 

The incident has been deeply upsetting to the small, democratic nation of 100,000.  In sharp contrast to crime-ridden neighbours such as Jamaica and Haiti, Grenada prides itself as being one of the safest nations in the Caribbean.  Prior to Mr. Bartholomew’s death, one of the country’s most prominent news stories was the lockout of 100 workers at the country’s publicly-owned Grenada Brewery. 

Mr. Bartholomew’s death has ignited charges that Grenadian authorities have ignored a growing culture of police brutality within the Royal Grenada Police Force, the country’s sole law enforcement agency. 

“Over the last 10 years, numerous letters have been written and lawsuits have been filed in relation to police officers who are known to just wantonly beat people once they are in police custody,” Mr. Sylvester said. “ I’ve said that one day they would kill someone.” 

Last Wednesday, at least one hundred people turned out to a candlelit vigil outside the station where Mr. Bartholomew was beaten.  Some had known Mr. Bartholomew, others were there to protest their own episodes of police brutality. “ We’ve had enough,” said one man in a video of the vigil uploaded to YouTube. 

On its website, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs warns travellers to Grenada to be wary of “petty crime.”  Visitors to nearby Trinidad and Tobago, by contrast, are warned of home invasions, drug violence and the prospect being followed to their destination by carloads of thieves. 

“We do not like the international spotlight in situations like this,” Richard Simon, press secretary to the Grenadian prime minister, told Postmedia last week. “ It is not a normal thing for Grenada….  That is why this investigation is so important to us.”