The arrests of Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Arinthia Komolafe and eight other DNA members on Monday seemed heavy handed, but no one should excuse the party for demonstrating without a permit as required by law.
To be sure, the highly publicized arrests have also dealt a black eye to the current administration, whether fairly or unfairly, leaving many political observers in The Bahamas to conclude that democracy is under threat during an intensifying political season, and at a time when the prime minister seems increasingly comfortable with holding on to dictatorial powers more than a year into the current pandemic.
The arrests have also provided the DNA – a political party founded in 2011, but has so far been unsuccessful in winning any seats in Parliament – with more publicity than it has received since its dismal showing at the polls in the last election, and has resulted in Komolafe earning hero status in some circles.
Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle said the DNA members were detained for unlawful assembly and for attempting to breach Parliament.
This is in relation to a March 3 protest outside the House of Assembly during which time the protestors had heated exchanges with the police; some tried to access the entrance of the House of Assembly, which was in session. Minutes earlier, they had marched down the middle of Bay Street.
During the five hours that Komolafe and the others were in custody on Monday, the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) Glenys Hanna-Martin and former Free National Movement (FNM) Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner both showed up outside Central Police Station as a mark of solidarity with the detainees.
PLP Leader Philip Brave Davis in a statement characterized the arrests as “an act of political intimidation, oppression and suppression by an insecure, paranoid and hugely unpopular Prime Minister Dr. Minnis”.
Davis concluded, “Dr. Minnis does not know the difference between an unlawful act and a political activity.”
But were the arrests an unlawful act?
In defending their decision to protest without the commissioner’s permission, DNA Chairman Omar Smith said yesterday they have a constitutional right to freedom of assembly.
Article 15 of the constitution provides every person in The Bahamas the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual “subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interests”, including freedom of “expression and of assembly”.
The constitution also calls for the appointment of the commissioner of police and charges Parliament with passing laws for the good governance and public order of the Commonwealth. One of the laws is the Police Act, which clearly outlines the powers of the commissioner, and another is the Penal Code.
Section 79(1) of the Penal Code describes an unlawful assembly as an assembly of three or more persons who, with intent to carry out any common purpose, assemble in such a manner, or so conduct themselves when assembled, as to cause persons in the neighborhood of such assembly to fear, on reasonable grounds, that the persons so assembled will disturb the peace tumultuously, or will, by such assembly, needlessly and without any reasonable occasion provoke other persons to disturb the peace tumultuously.
In order to legally demonstrate, organizers of protests must first obtain permission from the commissioner of police. This means there cannot be a free for all in exercising our rights.
Section 212 of the Penal Code which deals with “nuisances and obstructions in the streets and the like”, states: “Every person who does any of the following acts shall, in every case, be liable to a penalty of one hundred and fifty dollars, that is to say, every person who holds or takes part in any procession in any public street or place without the previous written permission of the commissioner of police”.
At Section 411, the penalty for unlawful assembly is imprisonment for one year.
We asked Komolafe why she did not seek a permit from the commissioner for the March 3 demonstration as required by law. She insisted that the DNA did not stage a protest, but a “flags and fliers distribution day” and as such a permit was not necessary.
Regardless of how the DNA leader wishes to characterize the event on March 3, video evidence clearly shows that the DNA staged a protest downtown.
Protestors carried placards, demanding, among other things, that the prime minister “ring the bell”; led by Komolafe, they pumped their fists in the air, chanting “PM gotta go”. Some pushed against police officers as they tried to access the entrance to the House.
“We are here as the DNA representing the frustrations of the Bahamian people and we have come to ask the Honorable Hubert Alexander Minnis to ring the bell,” Komolafe declared as other protestors cheered her on.
Perceptions
Despite widespread perceptions created by the arrests three weeks later, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle told reporters those arrests were in no way influenced by politics and he had had no directive from anyone in the country’s political leadership to arrest the DNA members.
“I do not take instructions from politicians,” said Rolle, noting that his loyalty is to the constitution of The Bahamas.
Unfortunately for the Minnis administration, there is a large segment of Bahamians – many of them already distrusting of government – who do not believe the political directorate was not involved in the decision to hold the DNA members in lockup.
So whether or not anyone from the political directorate had anything to do with the arrests on Monday is immaterial to many people’s perceptions on this matter, further damaging how the Minnis administration is viewed by many voters.
These perceptions might also be unfair to the commissioner of police, who could very well be acting alone, but it is difficult to accept that the action was taken without the prime minister having any prior knowledge.
Though the DNA members were released, Rolle made it clear that the matter might not be over just yet, indicating they could still be charged.
But the drawn out investigation seems entirely unnecessary for the minor offense of failing to get permission from the commissioner to protest.
Many people found it curious that police waited three weeks to address the matter of the purported unlawful assembly, but Rolle brushed off criticisms in that regard.
“I have a year. I’m saying Parliament was still meeting and I didn’t wish to interfere with that. So, that’s really all that there is to it.”
Last August, police arrested multiple people as they protested outside Super Value on East Street. That particular protest was
organized by Operation Sovereign Bahamas, which protested the restrictive measures that had been announced by the prime minister during the pandemic.
They had not received a permit to protest either.
Civil disobedience
Upon her release, Komolafe said she “absolutely” believes that her arrest and the arrests of the other DNA members were a form of political victimization.
In this highly charged political atmosphere, fueled by the signals the prime minister has sent in recent weeks pointing to an early election, the arrests of political opponents takes on added significance.
Asked yesterday whether he thought the actions of the police in arresting the group was heavy handed, Wayne Munroe, a prominent attorney familiar with these matters, said, “I don’t know why they’ve done it.”
But he added, “Sometimes they (the police) will tell you, the reason why [you are required to write to the commissioner is] they just practically like to know what you’re doing. If you have a large movement of people there is a potential for problems, so they set up cameras in case anyone is stabbed, shot, killed, looting or any of that goes on.
“For instance, if you’re having a large demonstration coming down Bay Street, they’re going to want to warn business owners, they’re going to want to provide extra precautions to stop looting and that type of thing, and they have security issues. I don’t know what all they are, but from a practical standpoint that is one of their concerns.”
Munroe said there are ways of getting around getting a permit, “You can’t all be dressed alike; you may need to continually move so you can’t be accused of causing an obstruction.”
He was also asked whether he thinks the arrests were politically motivated as has been claimed by Komolafe and the DNA, and by others, including the PLP’s leadership. Munroe responded, “I don’t have a clue. I didn’t even know they had a demonstration until there was this report about them getting arrested for one.”
Asked about the decision by the police to make the arrests three weeks after the protest, he said, “They let them (the protestors) do what they had to do. Civil disobedience says this, you have a right to break the law to make your point, but if you’ve in fact broken the law, you can be called to account, and the fact that I take three weeks to come and get you doesn’t stop the fact of whether you’ve broken the law or not.”
Civil disobedience is a strategy Minnis seemingly supported when he was leader of the opposition in 2016.
Minnis and other FNMs who are now members of his Cabinet, participated in a protest with Cabbage Beach vendors against the erection of a fence blocking their access to the beach.
Protestors clashed with police as they blocked access to Sidney Poitier Bridge. Some protestors tore down the fence.
After they were charged in court in relation to the matter, Minnis expressed disappointment and vowed that if his party won the election, it would expunge the records of the accused men if they were convicted.
After the protest, the late Bradley Roberts, then Progressive Liberal Party chairman, accused Minnis of creating an atmosphere of hostility that culminated in disorderly conduct.
In March 2018, prosecutors withdrew charges against the 10 people charged following the heated protest after two senior police witnesses failed to show up to testify by the court-imposed deadline.
Though Rolle has said the matter of the arrests of the DNA members was still under investigation, we would be shocked if anything comes out of it beyond political damage for the Minnis administration.
As the election season builds, we hope that the DNA leaders and all other political leaders would respect the laws and the rules as they ought to be an example to the general public.
Playing semantics in describing their March 3 protest and employing the gaslighting strategy weakens their position.
That said, the arrests seemed to be a complete overreach, especially in this politically charged atmosphere.
The post DNA arrests feel heavy handed, but political leaders must respect the law appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/dna-arrests-feel-heavy-handed-but-political-leaders-must-respect-the-law/
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