BY LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
COALITION of Independents Leader Lincoln Bain says he finds it “ridiculous” that people would seek to blame last week’s protest as the catalyst for threats being made to the nation’s leader, insisting the party would never incite people to do such a thing.
Mr Bain claimed that to date, he has never used irresponsible or hateful language at protests held over the country’s immigration problems and also denied that members of COI were behind the calls made to the Prime Minister’s office on Friday.
“Up to this time, we think all of my statements have been responsible,” the political hopeful told The Tribune yesterday. “I have said that we do not hate Haitians or any nationality. We are not specifically targeting Haitians, for example, but we have a crisis as it relates to them flooding our country.
“We make it clear that this is not against any people. This is against illegal migration, and we have called on the government to do something.
“In terms of other persons who may be making inflammatory statements, I will say this – Bahamians are angry and fed up and they are losing their patience.”
During an emergency press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister on Friday, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said officers could not rule out the possibility that last week’s demonstration outside Parliament could be connected to Friday’s incident.
He was speaking in reference to a video of the protest that circulated on social media.
In the video, a man in the crowd is heard threatening to kill Prime Minister Phillip Davis.
The police chief said that in view of the incident, he intended to have a word with Mr Bain because he claimed that the COI leader needed “to control his supporters”.
“I find it ridiculous that they connect a protest to something that happened days later, and we don’t understand why they would even try to connect them.”
“The commissioner said that he cannot rule it out and that it could be a COI member, but he can’t rule it out that it would be a PLP member or FNM member or a member of any other organisation,” he said.
“So, to make that statement so loosely, we think is completely irresponsible so we are concerned about that, and we also find it disappointing that anyone would connect that demonstration to the COI.”
As for the threatening remarks heard in the video, Mr Bain said he had no issue speaking with the commissioner to help police get to the bottom of the matter.
However, he was clear that “to make him responsible” for someone else’s action was ludicrous and again insisted that last week’s demonstration was not a “COI event”, but was organised for all Bahamians.
“There were persons that came out of shops downtown and joined the march and there were persons who came from all over. I have no problem with speaking to the commissioner at any time,” he added.
“In terms of making me responsible for any other adult’s action, I think is actually ludicrous. Again, that was an event for all Bahamians and if I go to Junkanoo and some people start to get unruly at Junkanoo, do we say that a Junkanoo committee needs to be reined in because there was a fight at Junkanoo, and they are somehow responsible.”
“I think that that is nonsensical.”
As for the way forward, Mr Bain said he plans to continue raising awareness on critical issues in the country, adding he had another demonstration planned at next week’s CARICOM meeting.
Police have warned that security will be tightened at the event in view of Friday’s incident.
However, Mr Bain is of the view that government should just allow the protest to be held without any hindrance, saying this is a part of democracy.
“We are extremely concerned that this call to the Prime Minister’s office is an effort to be used to increase security or push the protests back out of the eye view of the international media to have an excuse to raise the security levels,” the COI leader continued.
“We don’t think that it’s a legitimate threat and as the Commissioner of Police says, this is not the first time that the prime minister would’ve received a threat.”
Meanwhile, in a video circulating last night, Mr Bain is seen calling for “vigilante action” against shanty towns.
The video shows an interview with Mr Bain during a crowd gathering. While the date of the event is not clear in the recording, which appears to have been made on a cellphone, it appears to be from last week’s protest.
While being interviewed by reporters, he says: “You have to stand up. I am calling for vigilante action against the taking of our land, the building of homes on our land. I am calling for vigilante justice.”
In the clip, he also called for the breaking down of shanty towns and said: “We are going to now begin breaking down shanty towns. Since the government can’t do it, we will do it.”