BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT was not all smooth sailing at this year’s Black San ‘Bang-a-Lang’ Las’ Lap Parade as some patrons accidentially met with a fallen live electric wire, while the early closure of the event aggravated many in attendance.
Without a doubt, officers from the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force were out in their numbers making sure there was order at the parade. They were seen at different points in the town as the Parade progressed.
The first mishap occurred just 10 minutes of the Jam after the revellers took off from the starting point.
“We were jamming as normal and all I hear somebody shout ‘watch out’, and when I look up there comes the wire from above me,” a reveller said seconds after the incident.
It was learnt that a cage atop the tractor that was transporting the sound system came into contact with an electrical wire that ran north to south across the thoroughfare. The electrical wire was ripped from a house and fell onto the roadway, causing revellers to run to safety.
An official from the SPIRIT Committee explained that following the mishap, the tractor was forced to drive on the left side of the road so as to make way for traffic approaching from the opposite direction.
“When the parade started, we saw the police officer directing traffic. So I asked him why they didn’t do it before the parade started, and he told me that when they arrived no one came so they have to start directing traffic from now,” the official said.
Meanwhile, havoc brewed later in the evening as many patrons and jammers were shocked on receipt of the news that the police officers stopped the entire procession. That decision came around 6:40 p.m. even before the parade had reached its scheduled destination.
The bands decided to end the very short procession, which was scheduled to start around 1:30 p.m. but did not until 3:45 p.m.
The decision by the police sparked uproar of verbal remarks to the officers who were seen from time to time speaking with the members of Kollision Band.
But around 7:20 p.m., music began to blast again and the jam continued into full swing. However, 15 minutes later the band was again ordered to stop playing. “We have to stop playing music or else they say they going to take us to the station,” one of the band members disclosed to the crowd.
The revellers became annoyed and enquired with some of the officers on duty as to the reason for stopping the music.
At one scene, an angry patron was pulled from a section of the crowd as he kept shouting indecent remarks to the officers.
The patrons were then told to head to the Sandy Point Hard Court for an after party.
This publication learnt that the police had stopped the parade because the time allocated was not adhered to. Permission was granted for the parade to commence at 1:00 p.m. and to end at 6:30 p.m.
However, just a week ago, police officers were tasked with separating two fights that occurred during the Black San J’Ouvert Parade. Unconfirmed reports stated that the fights occurred from an incident involving the purchase of beverages.
Luckily, no one was harmed during any of the reported incidents.
