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Cops raid anniversary dance for Braeton Seven
BY CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
COPS on Saturday raided a dance at the Ferdie Neita Park in St Catherine that was being held in memory of seven youths who were killed by the police in Braeton on March 14, 2001.
Patrons said that at about 4:00 am on Saturday a number of uniformed and plain-clothes cops entered the park, locked the gates and began singling out patrons to search.
"Everybody was there having fun and enjoying themselves when the police came," one patron told the Observer yesterday.
"A police Hiace bus and two jeeps speeded into the park at about 40 miles per hour."
The patron, who did not wish to be named, said unmarked police vehicles were already in the park when their colleagues arrived in the bus and jeeps. She said the police then surrounded the park, closed the gate, ordered that the music be turned off and instructed the patrons to line up.
More than two hundred people were in attendance at the time the police conducted the search. She said that many people, including the "sound man and the jerk man" were searched. The cops, she said, also searched patrons' vehicles in the parking lot.
The Observer source was not searched, as the police were apparently targeting people wearing baggy clothing.
"If you were wearing big pants you were searched as you could probably have something hidden," the patron said.
However, yesterday the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said it had no knowledge of the raid on the anniversary dance for the Braeton Seven.
On March 24, 2001 the seven youths were shot and killed at lot 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton, in a police operation led by Superintendent Reneto Adams. The police said that the seven young men died in a shoot-out, but citizens claimed that they were murdered.
Six policemen, whom the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ordered to be tried for the murder of the seven youths in January 2005, were acquitted by a jury.
Cops raid anniversary dance for Braeton Seven
BY CLAUDIENNE EDWARDS Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
COPS on Saturday raided a dance at the Ferdie Neita Park in St Catherine that was being held in memory of seven youths who were killed by the police in Braeton on March 14, 2001.
Patrons said that at about 4:00 am on Saturday a number of uniformed and plain-clothes cops entered the park, locked the gates and began singling out patrons to search.
"Everybody was there having fun and enjoying themselves when the police came," one patron told the Observer yesterday.
"A police Hiace bus and two jeeps speeded into the park at about 40 miles per hour."
The patron, who did not wish to be named, said unmarked police vehicles were already in the park when their colleagues arrived in the bus and jeeps. She said the police then surrounded the park, closed the gate, ordered that the music be turned off and instructed the patrons to line up.
More than two hundred people were in attendance at the time the police conducted the search. She said that many people, including the "sound man and the jerk man" were searched. The cops, she said, also searched patrons' vehicles in the parking lot.
The Observer source was not searched, as the police were apparently targeting people wearing baggy clothing.
"If you were wearing big pants you were searched as you could probably have something hidden," the patron said.
However, yesterday the Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said it had no knowledge of the raid on the anniversary dance for the Braeton Seven.
On March 24, 2001 the seven youths were shot and killed at lot 1088 Fifth Seal Way, Braeton, in a police operation led by Superintendent Reneto Adams. The police said that the seven young men died in a shoot-out, but citizens claimed that they were murdered.
Six policemen, whom the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ordered to be tried for the murder of the seven youths in January 2005, were acquitted by a jury.
Cops raid anniversary dance for Braeton Seven
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