By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Tuesday 17th July 2018)- Yesterday (Monday), a silent group of protestors took to the streets week demanding answers surrounding the fatal traffic accident involving 20-year-old Tau ‘TJ’ Johnson in a demonstration dubbed ‘Justice For TJ’, featuring scores of young people mostly teenagers and persons in their 20s.
This week’s protest march kicked off from Greenlands along Cayon Street then turning on to Church Street where the group stood outside Government Headquarters for about a minute or less. Next, the procession moved onto Liverpool Rowe then Fort Street then onto Cayon Street where demonstrators stood outside the Basseterre Police Headquarters for more than fifteen (15) minutes.
Immediately after the protest came to a standstill, a woman was heard crying out in grief while some time after choruses rang out saying “We want justice!” and “Justice for TJ!”
Spokesperson of the group, Teshari Liburd while speaking to reporters including this media house gave the reasoning behind the protesting.
“The protest was basically for justice for Tau. We felt like an injustice has been done and
there hasn’t been any explanations; anything at all. We feel as though what happened is being covered up by the authorities and we demand to know what happened, what transpired. We need to answers basically.”
Asked to share her thoughts on the support from the public, she said: “Well the support from the public is absolutely resounding and it sends a clear message in that people feel as though that the young guy was treated unfairly and … we demand justice…we need to know what happened.”
Also, when asked to describe the deceased young man, Liburd remarked: “TJ is the sweetest little boy that you can know. I’ve known him since he was a very little child and he has grown into the most respectable young man, intelligent, the model teenager pretty much; well he turned 20 on the day that he met with his death but [he is] the model young man pretty much.”
Today, the protest action is expected to continue with demonstrators assembling on the compound of the Joseph N. France General Hospital.
According to Liburd: “We chose the hospital because of the way the EMS [Emergency Medical Services] personnel handled TJ after the accident. We were very unsatisfied with that.”
Controversy surrounding the young man’s death has been widely debated after a cellphone video spanning two minutes and fifty-five seconds (2:55) shows how he was handled while the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) were on the scene after Johnson got into an accident while riding a motorcycle.
Members of the public have expressed anger, frustration and disappointment regarding that first response scenario as well as the circumstances that led up to the crash while reportedly being chased by police over the past weekend.
