Police constrain pedestrian
Just three (3) days after the Royal Montserrat Police Service (RMPS) reported crime reduction statistics to a group plus of regulars at the Sujue Davis, wife of His Excellency the Governor Coffee Morning gathering, they conducted an operation in the north Davy Hill community.
The operation sparked some controversy after the media reported the lack of or scant information surrounding the operation.
Minister of Agriculture, Housing, Trade, Lands, and Environment, the Hon. Claude Hogan publicly criticized the operation on Friday, January 30, 2015.
In a radio interview with ZJB’s Basil Chambers the following morning Minister Hogan said, “What’s needed in areas like Davy Hill is more police presence.”
He called on the law enforcement officers to have a more modernised approach in conducting their duties. “Operations like these are only warranted in a life and death situation,” he said.
Directing the following comments to the Davy Hill community, Hogan said, “I have spoken to the authorities for myself after this thing yesterday and I want to ensure the people of Davy Hill that what happened should not have happened the way it did, notwithstanding that the police have the right to undertake these operations”
The raid operation was conducted in the area between the entrance to the incomplete Davy Hill Community Center and the office of the Montserrat Reporter; the street was completely blocked by the Police with no foot or motor vehicular traffic allowed through.
Both ZJB and TMR reporters sought to speak to the commanding officer for the operation, Inspector Albert Williams, but was directed to the Director of Operation Superintendent Bennett Kirwan at Headquarters in Brades.
There were no comments from Kirwan who said he can’t make a statement on the matter.
Meanwhile other members of the community are outraged over the manner in which the operation was conducted by the law men. During the operation some were shouting, “gross miscarriage of power”, while others considered it to be an abuse of their human rights.
