Omer Turkmen, a victim of the massive earthquakes that killed over 50,000 people and obliterated large swathes of southern Turkey on Feb. 6, thought police officials were going to provide him with a tent and food as temperatures dipped below zero in his native Antakya, the worst affected province of all.

What he got instead was a thorough beating that left him with memory loss and in a state of constant fear.

“They asked me for my ID, and when they saw I had a criminal record for smuggling diesel from Syria, everything changed,” Turkmen told Al-Monitor about his encounter with the police on Feb. 24. “There were around 10 of them, all special police forces. They started beating with their bare hands, with their rifle butts. They kicked me all over. They called me bad names and threatened to kill me, calling me a thief,” Turkmen sobbed. “I did nothing. I was just asking for help, for some shelter. I’ve been sleeping in my car ever since the earthquakes. I have no work. Not only has the state done nothing for us, but they are also treating us like criminals,” Turkmen said. His two nephews, Mehmet Ali and Nizam Dogan, who were present at the scene, tried to help him. They got a thrashing too.

The seemingly random violence applied by security forces in the earthquake zone, where emergency rule remains in force, has already resulted in the death of one person in custody as previously reported by Al-Monitor. “It is as if the earthquake gave them the opportunity to reveal their true faces, to act with unfettered impunity,” said Umit Buyukdag, secretary general of the independent Progressive Lawyers’ Association, which is investigating abuses in the region. In most cases, victims are accused of theft and looting, often with no proof to substantiate the claim.