Turkish Man Beaten And Racially Abused In Belfast By PSNI In Front Of Witnesses - National Rights and Freedoms - Indymedia Ireland

' He looked me straight in the face and said “Hey Kebab boy” ' Musa Gulusen is a well known face to anyone who shops regularly on Royal Avenue in Belfast. He has been a stallholder there for seven years. Originally from Turkey, Musa settled here 12 years ago and has a family here. Last Saturday there was a PSNI operation against unlicensed stallholders in Belfast City centre. Musa says that during this operation he was severely assaulted and racially abused by the PSNI officers taking part in the operation. Musa says “a police officer grabbed me by the throat and he shoved me up against a wall. I was protesting and asking him why are you holding me. I was trying to tell him that I had made my application for a license to Belfast City Council. I told him the name of the person in the Council who is dealing with it. He wasn’t listening. He hit me in the face with the back part of his hand. Then other officers came over. They forced me to the ground. They grabbed my arms up behind my back. I was yelling and yelling how sore my arm was but they were not listening. They kept pulling and my arm was in real pain. There was blood on the ground. They then half dragged me across the ground to the Land Rover and put me inside. In the Land Rover the policeman who had hit me in the face asked me my name. I said that I was in pain that I would not tell him my name as he had hit me. Other police got into the Land Rover. One of them appeared to be senior – like an inspector. He looked me straight in the face and said “Hey Kebab Boy”. All the other police in the Land Rover started laughing really hard. They just kept laughing. There were four of them. I was thinking I am 36 years old. I have lived here for twelve years, I have a British passport and they see me as if I was an animal. It was the same as if he had said to me “Hey Monkey Boy”.