ewn.co.za JOHANNESBURG – Liam Bulgen and his partner Tereza were put into a police van while she was trying to breastfeed their 21-month-old toddler.
With the Disaster Act Regulations during the COVID-19 lockdown in place, the Muizenberg resident described how he and his family were arrested after his toddler ran onto the beach while they were walking on the promenade.
“I woke up today and thought ‘was that a bad dream?’ We left home quite late yesterday, at about 8.20 am, because we had been busy cooking food for the Vrygrond Feeding Scheme.
“We live quite close to the beach and arrived at about 8.30 am and we were walking along the Muizenberg boardwalk in the middle of the promenade. My fiance wanted some space so I thought I would just stop with my child who is 21-months-old and take her out of the carrier.
“As I put her down out of the carrier, she literally just hopped over onto the beach and she managed to get about 1.5 metres onto the sand. I ran after her and grabbed her. She made a scene. My partner came back because she heard her crying. We were literally in the process of dragging my child off the sand when we got arrested.”
Bulgen said there was still some confusion about what they were arrested for and that the police captain said the charge was for being on the beach, which breaks the regulations.
“Even though we explained to him that we were just trying to pick up our child who was having a tantrum. While we were walking to the police vehicle, one officer, told me I am stupid for having my child out in public because she could die.”
Tereza was breastfeeding their daughter to try and calm her down.
“They forcefully insisted she gets into the other police vehicle while she was breastfeeding, no safety belt on, and the police officer driving the vehicle was not wearing a mask.”
CT family says ‘forced into police van’ after toddler ran to beach https://t.co/uSjtplCoyD pic.twitter.com/uLWIfEkpIr
â Eyewitness News (@ewnupdates) May 5, 2020
