A lawyer working at the International Court of Justice in The Hague claims she was the victim of ‘racially-motivated police brutality’ that left her in hospital, after being arrested outside work on Tuesday morning.

Chaka Laguerre, who is from the US and has a 10-month clerkship at the UN organisation, posted an impassioned protest about her alleged treatment on Facebook on Wednesday evening.

She claims that she had been walking her bicycle across the street on a red light to get to work, was stopped by police, arrested for being unable to provide identification, and then ‘roughed up’.

DutchNews.nl understands that local council member Fatima Faïd, spokeswoman for emancipation and integration, is looking into her case.

‘Attack’

Laguerre writes on Facebook (as Chaka Shakira) that two officers dragged her into a police car, using what she describes as unnecessary violence: ‘I kept explaining that I am an expat working at the Court, that I did not know that walking across the street was a crime, that I did not do anything wrong, and begged them to speak to the Court security,’ she writes.

‘Both officers kept attacking me anyway. I screamed out for help…Dutch people stood around on the streets, watching and recording the incident on their phones, but no one tried to help me.’

She claims she was bundled into the car, in tears and on the point of blacking out, put in a holding cell and refused a phone call for more than an hour. She adds: ‘Then, the chief of police came in to tell me that the police officers told him that I was kicking and spitting on them…I told the chief that the police officers were lying (I would NEVER spit on a human being)…He told me that he wasn’t there but that I had broken the law.’

She says eventually she was allowed a call, colleagues from the International Court of Justice came to the precinct and she was released, but told she would have to pay a fine.

‘Speak out’

The former Miss Jamaica compares her experience of studying and living in America with the Dutch city. ‘What hurts me most is that I survived 30 years in America – never had an altercation with the police, never been arrested, never even gotten a ticket – and came to The Hague, the “City of Justice,” where I was brutalized by two male police officers, as a lawyer working at the International Court of Justice, and on the very grounds of that Court.

‘And what frightened me most was that everyone stood around and watched…

‘This has been the experience of many people of color in The Hague. And this will continue to be the experience of people of color in The Hague – unless we speak out.’

Her account was originally illustrated with a picture of herself in a hospital bed, and on Thursday morning it showed an image of her in a suit on the steps of a building. At the time of writing, it had more than 2,500 shares, 3,600 likes and more than 1,000 comments on Facebook.

More nuanced

Bobby Markus, a spokesman for the police in The Hague, disputed Laguerre’s account. ‘We are aware of this story. It is indeed more nuanced than the story this woman has put out herself. There are images on camera and we have looked at these, and during the morning we will put out a press release with our side of the story.’

The International Court of Justice, Faïd and Laguerre have all been contacted by DutchNews.nl for comment.