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A composite photo of the accused, Dave Crosby, left, and Richard “Ras Obah” Jacobs outside the Kingstown Magistrate's Court on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022.
A composite photo of the accused, Dave Crosby, left, and Richard “Ras Obah” Jacobs outside the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022.
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Two men were, on Monday, brought before the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, charged with separate counts of gathering illegally near the Parliament building last Friday.

Dave Crosby, 53, of Cane Garden, pleaded not guilty to a charge that on Jan 14, in Kingstown, he knowingly failed to comply with the direction of Station Sergeant of Police Julian Cain when directed to disperse from an unlawfully held public meeting, which was held within 200 yards of the High Court Building, where the House of Assembly was sitting, contrary to section 8(3)(a) of the Public Order Act. 

Richard “Ras Obah” Jacobs, 72, of Villa, pleaded similarly to a charge that on Jan. 14, in Kingstown, he knowingly failed to comply with the direction of Sergeant 403 Nigel John when directed to disperse from an unlawfully held public meeting, which was held within 200 yards of the High Court Building, where the House of Assembly was sitting, contrary to section 8(3)(a) of the Public Order Act. 

Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett allowed the men’s station bail to continue and ordered them to return to court on March 29 for trial. 

Meanwhile, the main opposition New Democratic Party, on Sunday, said that police arrested on Friday “persons for exercising their constitutional and democratic rights through a peaceful protest in Kingstown outside the Parliament”. 

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We, in the New Democratic Party, condemn these unlawful arrests and consider this an attack on and an attempt to curtail the basic constitutional and democratic rights of Vincentians,” the party said.

It said that arrests are “another example of an unpopular government that has lost touch with the people, using state power to stifle democracy. 

“What is of great concern is that these arrests come in the wake of similar charges being recently thrown out of court. This new round of arrests suggests that the ULP government want to instill fear in the people to prevent them from exercising their democratic and constitutional rights,” the party said.

The NDP said that all around the world, the strongest democracies see protests on a daily basis, as people take to the public spaces to demand and promote their rights. 

“There is nothing wrong or bad about peaceful protest; in fact, social protest is essential to fostering a vibrant, strong democracy.

“The NDP call on the government to release all persons arrested immediately without charge and to stop this wanton abuse of state power against Vincentians that choose to exercise their rights through peaceful protest,” the statement said. 

16 replies on “2 charged with illegal gathering near Parliament”

  1. Winston Brown says:

    When they overtured waste master skips,in 2001,when they,blocked the roads,when the fat cat,lay down in the road blocking traffic,what kinda protest was that,they called it peaceful back then,ironically no police arrested any of them.Today you are arresting people for holding a placard?What a ruthless bunch of criminals, the heat is definitely on,and you and ur evil regime will fall.Time longer than twine,oh and remember karma knows everyone address ok.Wicked bastards……

  2. This can be seen in a wider lens as it matches what we see the Democrates in the USA are doing. the difference is that in SVG the government has not yet started calling these vicious, extremely dangerous and violent senior citizens “Domestic Terrorists” yet, such as the mothers that are against Critical Race Theory and forced injections in the USA. The USA President and his buddies have already told us of the tens of thousands of heavily armed White Supremists that now endanger that country’s transgender pedophiles, and other rights groups. Just think! These guys in SVG could have stormed the building and taken over the government, then commission the building of Nuclear weapons and threatened the world!
    They had to be detained!
    Crazy politicians and governent is not only in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. In SVG we have them in both parties, just that there may be more in one than the other. Sometimes the FAKE News, not reported news or exageration news put out by politicians causes these politicians to get crazier by the day and allows minor public officials to be just as radical.

  3. nancysauldemers says:

    Maybe it’s just me, but I failed to see the “unlawfully held public meeting” in which these two gentlemen were purportedly participating. Surely it takes more than one lone protester or one solitary picketer or a single outspoken individual to constitute an “unlawfully held public meeting.”

  4. Israel R. Bruce says:

    Another wanton waste of state resources. But yes its about driving fear into the heart and souls of Vincentians. This objective will NOT be satisfied no matter what. I want to see how the office of the DPP satisfies a properly constituted court and a balanced magistrate that these people were in a meeting in accordance with the law. Also how they will satisfy the procedural requirements of the Public Order Act of 1951. I will give evidence in this case if needs be because the protestors were never told anything about violating any distance requirements from a sitting parliament until i intervened and by then the police had already locked up these two men. This foolishness and abuse of power must stop NOW.

  5. Remember DRE idiots are cheaper to buy than normal folk, you can be sure this one came at an absolute bargain price due to the depth of his stupidity.

  6. NANCYSAULDEMERS, you are quite right in normal circumstances and under normal police control. But in SVG one cattle can be a herd, one tree can be a forest, one man can be a crowd of illegally gathered group of people.

    When people are control freaks and break laws which they expect others to respect, or fail to respect normal decency rules, such as rape and molestation, dirty masturbatory phone calls. When the control freak is an obese glutton and a worshipper of Obeah, what else do you expect.

  7. Mr Friend Israel Bruce the expression if needs be is considered to be a colloquial expression. If need be is standard English.

  8. All the traits of dictatorship. Draconian mandates, obstruction of justice, locking up ordinary people for nothing.

Comments closed.