The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
— Frederick Douglass, civil rights activist, Aug. 4, 1857
After The Police indiscriminately fired tear gas on peaceful protesters, on Saturday December 15 2017, while they exercising their constitutional right to assemble, they sought to justify it by saying that the gathering was unlawful because they did not ask for permission. Why would citizens ask for permission to have a peaceful assembly guaranteed them under the Constitution? For the ignoramus Daniel Carbon, here is what the Supreme law of Dominica, the Constitution states:-
Chapter 1: Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, Section 1
Whereas every person in Dominica is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms, that is to say, the right, whatever his race, place of origins, political opinions, colour, creed or sex, but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest, to each and all of the following, namely
a) life, liberty, security of the person and the protection of the law;
b) freedom of conscience, of expression and of assembly and association ...
To those who do not understand, the Constitution is Supreme and no law, Public order, Riot Act or otherwise can abridge the Constitution. To Daniel Carbon, Anthony Astaphan, Blackmore and the other imbeciles in the Labor Party, Fundamental rights and Freedom means persons are born with these rights; no purchasing, begging, bargaining or battering for those Fundamental rights. If any laws violate these provisions of the constitution they should be challenged in the courts.
Citizens were exercising their Fundamental rights and they were purposefully barricaded from the Electoral Commissions Office by the Police and forced into a public road. The police were the ones who caused the problem. The Electoral Office was closed; there were no employees who needed to access the premises. Why would the Police barricade an empty office? What were they protecting? The police cannot create a problem and then accuse citizens of not being peaceful. Neither the Police nor the State can violate Fundamental rights.
It is obvious that after the citizens were forced onto the public road, that the police had created a problem of cars driving through an assembling crowd. This could have been easily remedied by redirecting the traffic. The Dominica Police Services willfully and callously placed citizens lives at risk to be possibly run over by vehicles going through the crowd. They refused to redirect the traffic, even if they knew the gathering was for a limited time. After citizens took matters into their own hands to form a human chain to prevent vehicles from running through a crowd which had senior citizens they were teargassed. They engineered a problem and then came up with a barbaric solution. Notwithstanding, The Police had the audacity to go to Environmentalist Arthie Martin's, home to arrest him. He was subsequently charged with incitement. For what? Because he tried to prevent citizens from being mowed down by vehicles going through the crowd? The police should be charged for neglecting to protect the citizens of Dominica. Who the heck are they working for? Dominica Labor Party?
Finally, to Commissioner of Police (Daniel Carbon), Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent. You need to do some reading and self reflection. You do not have to obey every command from Roosevelt Skerrit, Raymond Blackmore or Anthony Astaphan. Time to do some soul searching and desist from your distasteful habit of threatening persons who are exercising their constitutional rights. You will not be in the Police Force forever. At some point, you will have to leave and rejoin civilian life. The very people you are now threatening may be the ones to help you. And by the way, if you continue on this trajectory, the International Courts may, at some point, be after you and your instigators; those in the Labor Party Administration and their misguided advisors like Anthony Astaphan and others in this group of Passport Selling Lawyers. The use of expired teargas on unarmed Dominicans, peacefully assembled to exercise their constitutional right, may feel good to you all but is on the slippery slope towards 'Crimes against Humanity'. The Police gets away with this heinous act and may feel emboldened to escalate the atrocities. 'Wannabe' dictators and their goons can threaten to brutalize and even kill their citizens but, in time, the World has always neutralized this behavior. Be careful what you sow; do remember the saying.... Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap — Galatians 6:7.
