Did this parliamentarian call for the burning down of Georgetown?
Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon
Kaieteur News – I received a screen shot from a friend taken from a Facebook post by opposition parliamentarian, Ricky Ramsaroop. I am reproducing what is on the screen shot: “Telford Layne, it looks like the opposition is a noun and not a verb. Ricky Ramsaroop, MP – Telford Layne, I will tell them…to do more verb…protest, burn down gt, etc.”
I got in touch with more than a dozen persons who confirmed that emanation through perusing Mr. Ramsaroop’s Facebook posts. They informed me he uttered that advocacy that they saw on his Facebook page. The ethics of journalism is to go to the source of the remark to ascertain if the advocacy was made.
I called the parliamentarian. I did my professional obligation to him by informing him I was speaking formally in my capacity as a media operative and that I was taping him. Here is my exchange with the parliamentarian.
FK – Is this Mr. Ramsaroop?
RR- Yes.
FK – This is Freddie Kissoon. I am calling you officially, meaning in my capacity as a media person. So I am telling you we are on the record. Professionally I am telling you that instead of baiting you. Did you put a post on your Facebook that people should burn down Georgetown?
RR – I have no comment on this thing here right now, because there is a lot of things going on that I didn’t know about so I can’t comment on that right now.
FK – You cannot comment on a statement that has serious criminal implications for you? You cannot comment on that?
RR – Thank you very much Freddie, thank you.
FK – I am taping you, you know that (end of conversation).
Mr. Ramsaroop did not acknowledge or deny he made the advocacy. So it is left to readers to make their conclusion. If Mr. Ramsaroop did not urge people to burn down Georgetown, why would he refuse to utter a denial to the media? His lawyer would argue that his refusal to comment does not mean he issued the inciting words. I think that is legally a sound position so I will not question it.
I have been informed that Mr. Ramsaroop has deleted the alleged inciting statement. I am not a forensic detective nor a lawyer so I don’t know if the police can still proceed even if the post is deleted. I believe forensic police can retrieve Facebook postings.
But wouldn’t the police want to see the actual posting? Many persons have it including this columnist. I would be happy to send the police the screen shot I have. My cell is 614-5927 and my email is [email protected] I am also in receipt of another screen shot of another post by Mr. Ramsaroop in which he used these words: “After I made that comment, I deleted it after I realize that it can be interpreted differently based on some comments I was seeing.”
If you call on people to protest then even the most brilliant person in the use of grammar cannot interpret that to mean to hurt people, pelt bricks, cuss down the police, etc. Protest can take the form of peacefully holding a placard. It could be singing songs of resistance for passersby to hear. Calling for people to protest is not a criminal offence. Telling people to burn down Georgetown cannot be interpreted any other way but advocating the use of fire as a form of destruction.
What do I believe? It is my right to state what I believe. From all the evidence I have gathered it appears to me that Mr. Ramsaroop made the post. I cannot conceive how a parliamentarian can tell people to burn down Georgetown. Why would any politician want to go that route?
We will wait to see what the usual suspects have to say about Mr. Ramsaroop’s action. We know what the lunatic fringe will say. They like that kind of language. Remember a member of the lunatic fringe who lives in the US said on social media that the PPP will only listen when you run them off the road. Of course he wants his fools to do it for him because he isn’t leaving the US to come to Guyana to do anything.
Please contact me for a video clip of black pudding maan going crazy last week. He appeared on his Facebook page shouting: “Deh seh Mingo rig and how he rig de statement ah poll. Oh gaad, ow meh gaad!” This is just a piece of the madness that has overcome black pudding maan in that post. Why he ran mad? He eat too much of the nice white pudding (yes white) Massy Supermarket sells.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
