Assault on a policeman: Speaker should resign if…

Dec 18, 2017 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Around the world your chances of getting off lightly if you are accused of assaulting a policeman are very slim. The judiciary in perhaps all countries thinks of a world of chaos and disorder if police personnel are allowed to be attacked. It is always advisable to be extremely patient and not use physical force on a police rank no matter how provocative that rank is.
I travelled up to Berbice a few weeks ago to settle a dispute between an AFC youth activist and a police officer after the youth was placed in the lock-up. A quarrel ensued at a police roadblock and the officer in plainclothes was filming the incident; the camera was pushed into the face of the noisy youth.
Not knowing it was a police officer, the young man pushed him away and was arrested for assault. The youth explained that had the officer identified himself then the required respect would have been shown. No matter how unfair the policeman’s action is, it is best you restrain yourself. Using force on a police rank is going to send you to jail. That is the reality anywhere in the world.
Even if the police were not in order (I believe they were because Edghill should not have been allowed to do what he wanted in Parliament; he had to be restrained) when they entered Parliament, no member of parliament has the privilege to attack the police. There are video clips available to anyone who is interested in seeing them, of two PPP parliamentarians using violent hands against a particular rank. His shirt was torn and his body endured a few blows.
To date, the Speaker and the Commissioner of Police have not commented on that ugly incident. Let us do some logical deduction. A policeman was manhandled by two parliamentarians inside Parliament itself. The Speaker is still to act against the two members. The police are still to question the culprits.
Can we deduce from the incident that any journalist or visitor could be assaulted in the House by parliaments and it will go unpunished because they did just that to a policeman and remain untouched?
I have not done the research to ascertain if Parliamentarians have immunity from police intervention. If they do then we are going deeper into the vortex of nihilism. Violence can visit any citizen who gets into an argument inside the House and there will be no consequences for the assaulter. It is a deeply troubling situation. It tells me that a member of the National Assembly can slap a journalist and claim immunity.
If there is no such immunity then those parliamentarians (I haven’t named them; the editor can insert their names here, the reason being that even though they are caught on camera, they will still sue and I don’t have time in my life for such types of political masturbation from the PPP) should be both suspended from the House and charged for assault.
If in the coming days there is no suspension and police intervention, then this nation and its younger generation should withdraw any respect for the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Police Commissioner.
The reasoning is simple; any citizen could be violently hurt by sitting members of the House and there isn’t a damn thing the Speaker or the police can do. The Speaker’s role is to regulate behavior in the House of any human that enters it, be it journalist, clerk, civil servant, MP. How can the Speaker see a tape of a policeman being assaulted and not take any action? The same applies to the Police Commissioner. But let’s stick with the Speaker.
Certain members of the Opposition benches were shouting “rape, rape” inside the parliamentary chambers. These parliamentarians must be held accountable for their philistine behavior. If you lie in Parliament during a debate, you could be disciplined. If you use un-parliamentary language you could be disciplined, then how could you cry rape at a statutory sitting of the House and no one was being raped or there was no attempt at rape?
How could the Speaker refuse to act against these House members who have lowered the standing of Parliament in the eyes of the whole world?
Finally, House member Priya Manickchand exclaimed to the media (those scenes were shown all over the world) that a policeman cuffed her in her chest. What is the Speaker’s attitude to this accusation? Has he seen the tape of the fracas to ascertain if there was such an act? And if there wasn’t, then the Speaker must suspend Manickchand or he should resign for dereliction of duty.

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One thought on “Assault on a policeman: Speaker should resign if…”

rs dasai December 18, 2017 at 11:15 am

Freddi
You are out LBW. The Police has no business in Parliament and the Speaker know this. So why did the speaker allowed such?

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