BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH the dust settled from the Sugar Mas 44 street activities, District ‘A’ Commander of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force Superintendent Terrance James is commending the public for its generally-good behaviour and security officers for their efforts in maintaining law and order.
The officers had the difficult task of ensuring that there were no disturbances among the thousands of revellers and bystanders who flooded and the streets and lined the sidewalks of Basseterre on J’Ouvert, Grand Parade and Last Lap. And if skirmishes occurred, they were charged with acting as quickly as possible to diffuse these situations and preventing them from escalating.
Superintendent James told SKNVibes that the only major incident of which he is aware is the one that took place on West Independence Square Street.
“For the street activities we had security in place; in that we collaborated with our fellow security organisation…the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force. So we had a plan in place. We didn’t have any major incidents on J’Ouvert, Grand Parade Day or Last Lap expect for the shooting which took place on West Independence Square Street on Grand Parade Day.
“We didn’t have any security issues. We had a traffic plan in place also. And for the most part, it was followed and the rules were adhered to and there were no major accidents or anything like that.”
On the day Last Lap was held (Jan. 2), the jamming was to have concluded at 9:00 p.m. However, because of two fights that reportedly occured in two of the bands, Supt. James said the session had to be cut short.
“The bands were scheduled to complete the jamming at 9:00 p.m. but there were one or two fights. So the officer on the ground decided to curtail the jamming to sometime after 8:00 p.m.
James, who commended the officers for their performance during the festivities, said had it not been for them the skirmishes which broke out during the jam sessions could have escalated to undesirable proportions.
“It was a long Carnival and we must commend the officers for their hard work, especially the Tactical Unit and the Drug Squad, which did a great job in curtailing what could have been serious incidents. They were able to nip situations in the bud before they could have escalated. I want to commend my officers, both senior and junior, for the work done during Carnival. We thanked the Defence Force, which has always partnered with us, for the assistance provided this year.”
Notwithstanding the skirmishes, Supt. James said the public deserves commendations as well for generally good behaviour.
“We must commend the general public on a whole for their good behaviour, so to speak; in that there wasn’t any major incident except for that on West Independence Square Street. There was one or two skirmishes but we were prepared and the officers had things under control. All in all, things went well.”
He said in excess of 10 individuals were taken into police custody on J’Ouvert day and a few more might have been picked up during the other street activities.
