BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - “I think it was a wrong decision to say to the criminal elements in the community that they’ve won. We’ve thrown our hands up in the air and said, ‘You’ve won’.”
This is the position taken by Chairman of the Green Valley Festival Douglas Wattley, who strongly disagreed with the directive of the Commissioner of Police (COP) to quash the permit for the annual J’Ouvert Jam that was scheduled to take place this morning (May 20) in Cayon.
SKNVibes spoke exclusively to Wattley who said he received a call yesterday at about 5:30 p.m. from Officer Thomas of the Cayon Police Station, who asked him to present himself at the station because “they had an important piece of information” to relay to him.
As revealed by Wattley, a female officer who was on duty told him that they were “directed to tell me that permission was receded”; information that was relayed from Deputy COP Stafford Liburd.
Wattley said that he requested to speak to Liburd, and so a call was made to have a “face to face” discussion with him.
According to Wattley, Liburd asked that he visit him at his office in Basseterre, which he did shortly before 6:00 p.m. yesterday in the company of Green Valley Festival’s Deputy Chairman Jerome ‘Jebu’ Isaac.
“They indicated that they thought it was in the best interest to cancel the J’Ouvert in part with what happened the Saturday night; that being the murder of the young man in Hermitage Village, Cayon,” Wattley said.
Wattley indicated that he and Isaac had asked Liburd to reconsider the decision, “but he indicated that he was not in a position to do so because the decision came from the Commissioner”. So he could not go beyond the COP’s directive.
Wattley then requested to have the COP’s number.
“So I asked to call the Commissioner, which I did. The Commissioner indicated that he was just coming out of a meeting. I suspected that it was the Labour Party Conference and I asked him if he could revisit the decision to cancel the J’Ouvert because I thought it was sending the wrong message.
“We have had difficulties in the past but we have never ever surrendered to criminal elements, and so I thought it was not an opportune time for us to start doing that. So I told him it was not a good idea to cancel J’Ouvert.”
According to Wattley, COP Walwyn “indicated that the decision was already made and that I don’t know what he knows, which I agree. I don’t know what he knows. I told him that I don’t think the incident from Saturday night was linked to Green Valley Festival. He says he believes it was linked. And so my interpretation of that is that it was synonymous with the Green Valley community and not the Green Valley Festival”.
He said COP Walwyn asked that they should speak tomorrow.
“Yes, I think the killing was linked to the community but I don’t think it was linked to the Green Valley Festival. But, anyways, he insisted that I don’t know what he knew and so that was not Green Valley’s decision and that to talk to him on Tuesday, which makes no sense.
“What he said is that we could do the Parade of Troupes, but we can’t do anything after the parade…like how we usually congregate in Maynard’s Park.”
Wattley finds it inconsistent that security could be provided for the Parade and not for the J’Ouvert Jam.
“I don’t see if he believes that he cannot provide security for J’Ouvert, which is often smaller than the Parade of Troupes and which is held in high daylight. And I don’t how he cannot provide security for that event, but thinks he can provide security for the Parade of Troupes which usually go on into the evening.
“If something can happen in J’Ouvert it can happen at the Parade of Troupes, so that was an inconsistency that is still baffling. And so it leaves me to wonder how the decision was arrived at. I have my suspicion…that’s about it,” he expressed.
The Parade of Troupes was scheduled to take place today from 1:00 p.m., moving off from the St. Mary’s Playfield.
