By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A POLICE officer on Friday claimed that local comedian Wellington Roberts, Jr, used a megaphone to encourage a crowd of people to “throw the mace out of the House of Assembly” during a protest at Parliament last year.
The entertainer was arrested in October 2020, when furloughed Atlantis workers seeking severance pay organised a demonstration on Bay Street. At the time, Roberts, Jr, was accused of inciting a riot and behaving in a disorderly manner.
He denied the allegations when he first appeared before Magistrate Samuel McKinney and the case was adjourned for trial. The comedian was granted $3,000 bail by a judge in the Supreme Court in the interim.
When Sergeant Steven Duncombe took the stand on Friday, he said he was working the 8am-4pm shift at the time of the protest. He said the demonstration was headed by Adrian Francis as part of the “Enough Movement” and consisted of about 100 persons. Sgt Duncombe said he was one of the officers posted on Parliament Street to monitor the crowd. He said that during the protest, a group of people were shouting slogans like: “Minnis gat to go!” He added that “in the midst of the crowd” was Roberts, who was holding a megaphone in his hand.
“He was encouraging the crowd to stand up for their rights,” Sgt Duncombe testified. “He shouted in the megaphone: ‘The Queen is in charge of the country, and she is in London.’ He then told the crowd they should throw the mace out of the House of Assembly again while the House was in session (before) proceeding toward the House of Assembly (while) instructing the crowd to follow him.”
The officer said when a chief officer attempted to arrest Roberts, Jr, he did not comply with the demands given to him and began to behave in a disorderly fashion.
He said this was when he and another officer were given instructions to help detain the comedian, who was subsequently taken to the Central police station for “safe keeping”.
Attorney K Melvin Munroe is representing Roberts.
When Mr Munroe asked Sgt Duncombe why his client was the only one that was arrested during the demonstration, the officer told him “once you cut off the head, the body dies”.
Sgt Duncombe said on the day of the protest, the crowd was “hostile, very angry and kind of fed up,” which made him feel like they could “possibly riot at any moment.” He said after they arrested Roberts, the crowd dispersed.
“I put it to you that the accused never incited a riot,” Mr Munroe continued in his cross-examination.
“There wasn’t a riot because he was arrested,” Sgt Duncombe replied.
The case continues on August 30.
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