By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Friday 3rd September 2021) — “It was they who escalated the situation, not the civilians. There were too many police officers.” This is the view of well-known social and political commentator Dwyer Astaphan, a former National Security Minister and lawyer, who openly criticised the conduct of the security forces at the ‘KITTITIAN LIVES MATTER peaceful walk’ protest held on Friday 20th August 2021.
“Two Fridays ago some people were downtown Basseterre protesting. These are people who have been suffering for over a year; reduced from being paid monthly to weekly to hourly, exposed to endless stress in the workplace, victims of aggressive and inconsiderate language from certain employers, and from no less than the Prime Minister and other government officials. These are people who have been under severe pressure to pay mortgages, rents, utility bills, to feed and keep their families safe and healthy. Many have now lost their jobs and with all of the pain and suffering they are understandably frustrated, despairing, afraid and angry,” Astaphan said. “Yet in spite of that they were peaceful, and any professional assessment of this situation at the time would have indicated that the protestors showed no signs of erupting into disorder or violence — none whatsoever. It was the security officers who overplayed their hand, although I sensed that a number of them were not really happy or preferring to be there and doing that — but they were under orders.”
Astaphan continued: “There were too many police officers. It was very muscular, and I don’t know what Customs and Defence Force personnel were doing there. The forces should not have pressured the civilians the way they did. They should not have caused the tear gas to be thrown. There was no meeting, there was no march, there was no breach of the Public Order Act as far as I could see, and they should not have arrested those three persons who I believe will get their charges lifted or defeated and who seem likely to receive some compensation if they bring legal action against the government.” He added that a customs officer should not have been present at such a situation, and that the people should have been warned about tear gas before it was discharged. “Escalating to tear gas takes the situation to a step where the next move is the use of a weapon, and there was absolutely no evidence on the ground to justify things reaching that level. This willingness by decision makers to suppress the people’s need to express themselves peacefully, and this blatant lack of compassion and respect, is only causing people’s frustration and anger to increase.”