BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Dec. 28.17– COMMISSIONER of Police, Ian Queeley has given commendations to those who turned out for the 2017 J’ouvert morning, as there were no major incidents reported during the activities which finished earlier than usual.
According to Queeley, his overall assessment of the J’ouvert morning was that it went “reasonable”.
The CoP stated that the police had good support from their counterparts in the Defense Force, and as a result were able to “police the J’ouvert very well”.
“There were no major incidents that were reported, and I must commend the revelers. From all accounts, and what was reported to me, all of the revelers behaved very well, and I would say exceptionally well. And I would say account for little, if any act of violence,” he told WINN FM.
For the 2017 event, the National Carnival Committee (NCC) opted to close activities at 10:00 a.m. instead of the customary 12:00 p.m., in order to provide adequate security for tourist and others on island.
Over 10, 000 cruise visitors came to the island on Boxing Day and the police and other stakeholders want to provide safety for all.
Queeley confessed that there were no difficulties in managing both the arrival of ships and the morning the activities.
That, he acknowledged, was due to the fact that they had adequate information early about the number of cruise ships coming to St. Kitts.
“We would have put things in place to ensure that both could co-exist…we wanted the cruise passengers to be safe and the J’ouvert revelers to be happy, and I believed that we would have achieved that.”
Looking ahead to Parade day and Last lap, the CoP indicated that certainly they have some zero tolerance police when it comes to Carnival events.
During the two major road activities, the police force would strictly be enforcing that policy.
“Please enjoy yourself, but enjoy peacefully. We want you to respect the laws of the land and to jam and to enjoy the Carnival in the traditional way, but we just want you to be aware that violence is something that we would not want to mar the celebrations and to be responsible to participating.”
Parade and Last Lap days are on January 1 and 2 in downtown Basseterre.
