In Summary:
- A Facebook user Patrick Redd posted a video of officers of the Liberia National Police confronting correction officers in a fist fight at the Kakata Central Prison
- He claims the incident shows police brutality under the administration of Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman
- We have verified that the video is authentic, but the incident occurred in December 2023 – before Coleman was appointed to the post of IG.
On September 14, a Facebook user Patrick Redd posted a nearly two-minute video showing police aides and some recent graduates of the Police Training Academy in a commotion with correction officers at the Kakata Central Prison.
In the post, he wrote that police brutality must end under IGP Gregory Colman’s administration, claiming that the police have no integrity as citizens are not safe.
Patrick’s post and subsequent comments suggest that the incident occurred during the administration of IGP Colman.
Claim
The post reads: POLICE BRUTALITY MUST END UNDER IGP. Gregory O W Coleman ADMINISTRATION!! Imagine a “POLICE AIDE” and some recent “GRADUATES” of the Liberia National Police (LNP) engagement with correction officers at the Kakata Central Prison in Kakata, Margibi County.
Rating Justification
We began fact-checking the video by first conducting a reverse image search. The search results show that the video was first published online in a December 18, 2023 Facebook post by a Margibi County-based journalist, Emmanuel Degleh.
We found that the video published on Facebook on September 14 by Patrick was extracted from the four-minute-thirty-second video first published by Journalust Degleh on December 18, 2023.
The original video was shared along with a post that reads: “Four correction officers of the Kakata Central Prison were placed behind bars after they closed the prison gate denying the entry and release of inmates at the prison”.
Journalist Emmanuel Degleh shared the original video on December 18, 2023
Journalist Degleh stated in the post that the correction officers “locked the prison gates in demand of compensation owed them for providing security for the 2023 general elections”.
Also, we identified Margibi County-based journalist Ackollie Nanakpallah while analyzing the video posted by Patrick Redd.
We reached out to Nanakpallah to confirm being in the video and to gather additional details about the video. He told us that the incident happened in December 2023 and that the video was not from a recent incident.
Gregory Colman was nominated by President Joseph N. Boakai as Police Inspector General on January 22, and was confirmed by the Liberian Senate on February 6, 2024.
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we conclude that the claim that the video showing correction officers at the Kakata Central Prison clashing with police officers is authentic. However, the incident did not occur during the administration of the current police IG. The post shared along with the video by Patrick is misleading.
The incident happened in December 2023 after correction officers blocked the release and entry of inmates into the prison facility as a show of protest over unpaid salaries after the 2023 elections. When the incident occurred, Gregory Colman had not been appointed as Inspector General of the LNP.
