Video: MP Roban On Pepper Spray Investigation
“More than 100 days have elapsed since our seniors were pepper sprayed and the full facts are yet to be revealed,” Shadow Minister of National Security Walter Roban said today.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon [March 14], Mr Roban said, “This past weekend marked 100 days since the unfortunate ‘pepper spray’ events of December 2nd 2016; a day when several of our seniors and others were pepper sprayed by the Police; a day when the Premier of the country regretted the Police use of ‘violence against our citizens.’
“Although 100 days have passed since that event, we have not forgotten. The people who were pepper sprayed have not forgotten. Bermuda has not forgotten.
The live video replay is below:
“We have been consistent in our call for a full investigation and for the release of the findings of that investigation. We have become disturbed at the responses of the Premier, the OBA, the Governor and the Minister – each of whom who are in a position to fully disclose critical information to the public, but have both delayed to and declined to.
“We note the recent Blue Ribbon Panel analysed a complex Airport construction and 30-year leasing project worth well in excess of $2 billion in a little over three weeks.
“Yet, more than 100 days have elapsed since our seniors were pepper sprayed and the full facts are yet to be revealed. Our people are demanding answers and this incident, we think, the Premier and the OBA just want to wish away.
Mr Roban said, “As a reminder, this is how things stand:
- “The response from the Governor to our request for a public, independent investigation into the pepper spray events of Friday, December 2nd fell way short of the reassurance that Bermuda needs.
- “The handling of the incident has the appearance to some, of being nothing short of a whitewash that the Government is happily watching unfold.
- “There is still no commitment from the Governor or the OBA to release the investigative findings to the public.
- “The Governor hasn’t provided a commitment that the findings of the peer review will be disclosed. That is not in keeping with the best practice he talks of.
- “Indeed, do we even know if the peer review has been done?
- “We now know the Premier withheld information from the public when he failed to disclose, after questioning by three reporters in December, that he spoke with the Commissioner on at least 6 occasions on the morning of December 2nd – and indeed just minutes before the pepper spraying took place.
- “Meanwhile, the Premier is now silent on exactly what the public should know about the events that he described as ’violence against our citizens.’
- “Minister Jeff Baron’s silence is even more deafening.
- “The few public statements that have been made by the Commissioner and the Governor are suggestive that there were training and operational gaps on the part of the BPS. What were they? What has been done; what will be done to fill those gaps? Will anyone be held to account?
“The country wants to put these events behind us, but we cannot until there has been full disclosure of the investigation; full disclosure of the peer review and full disclosure about exactly what was discussed between the Commissioner of Police and the Premier on December 2nd. Sadly, the more questions we ask, many more questions remain.”
Timing is everything.
nice try Mr Roban.
This is POLITRICKS at its lowest level! Bud Roban should be ashamed of himself for even trying this week attempt at deflecting what has now been revealed by the COI! Just when you think the plp can’t sink any lower, they prove us wrong!
I somewhat agree with one thing bud said, I also want to know when anyone will be held to account for their actions that day? The difference is, I want the law breakers to be held to account!
All of the post above indicate a serious problem in Bermudas community. We literally are ok with grandparents being pepper sprayed because two memebers of the PLP may have committed crimes ten years ago.
God bless bermuda.
Wrong!! We are ok with LAW BREAKERS being peppered sprayed!! All those that got peppered sprayed were old enough to know they were breaking the law, and they deserved everything they got! You would have a better argument if it was children of primary school age that got sprayed, at least then, one could say they were not old enough to know any better?
The real problem in Bermuda is we have far too many people that think like you do!
Please don’t speak for me. There is plenty about the events surrounding that protest that I am not o.k. with, but there is an investigation under way. Robain knows this and the timing of this latest press performance has less to do with concern over pepper spray than it does with countering the onslaught of deserved bad press over the past few weeks.
Your party supports and promotes lawlessness and criticizes the police or anyone else that tries to enforce the rules and laws we’re all supposed to live by. That’s what happens when you’re lead by people who think the rules don’t apply to them.
Why were the seniors at the front? Where we’re the real men? Take all the time you need.
62 dislikes but not one response? We know you can repeatedly refresh the page and hit dislike as much as you want. Cowards sent your own to the slaughter and want to play victim.
Well I totally understand why the protesters were there to voice their concern over the airport. And its sad of what happened that day on both sides. They did break the law as well and the police actions looked stupid and unorganized. Im just curious why there weren’t the same or more protesters when the plp signed over the Hospital to a foreign construction company and management firm and Tcd to be privatised? I guess the hospitals overrun and financials hasn’t come out yet. It is sad when we have a new hospital and yet we still need to send out patients to other contries to dealt with simple proceedures.
Borrr-innngggg lol
Just like your comment….
What do you need to know for crying out loud – the law was being broken. Maybe you should ask Wayne and Derick after all they were there and when they saw danger was approaching they retreated. Also if you feel so adamantly about something you should speak from the heart and not read (sort of)from a script.
One wonders if this is a distraction.
Whether some people really understand the importance of following rules and laws.
Is this fella serious after what we have learned this week.
WOW. Can you say tone deaf???
Blessings.
Slavery, Jim Crow and Apartheid were law too, sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do to get justice.
Some laws are made to protect hidden agendas.
Trumped up laws have ALWAYS been legislated to undermine de lower class. This Government is legislating laws to benefit their future interest which they have been doing for generations.
Pun intended.
Completely irrelevant as all of your comments are. Stop moaning.
Always playing the victim, OJ….your lack of skill and ability to contribute to society is your fault, not the OBA, not people…you need to own this.
Reperations for 400 years of working FREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REPARATIONS
You need Reparation H cause you’re an irritating azz.
You never worked a day in your life.
The PLP will get you those reparations, one capital project at a time apparently. They might toss you a scrap along the way. Vote PLP!
You’ve never worked a day in your life, OJ…and you’re still expecting handouts. Pathetic.
Which u dont deserve because “you” were NEVER a slave. Get off that horse mate. Its getting old.
Onion Juice are you really that childish ? Let me help you with something ,,slavery?? I was not there and neither were you pal , grow up and move onn would you!!!!
Pretty sure the Commisioner already publicly stated that any decision that day was made within his ranks.
But I understand the need to insinuate otherwise, especially when there is a need to deflect from certain revelations recently.
Carry on.
Let it go Roban.
COI got you?
Its been almost 5 years and we are still trying to get out of debt..
And oh never mind.
Actually de debt has been doubled since these dreamers have been in.
“Actually de debt has been doubled since these dreamers have been in.”
only when you lie about it, so, no.
On interested payments on the inherited debt and a deficit of about $400m when they took over.
OJ, if you plp drones actually contributed a penny for every click you get paid for ($800M can buy a lot of clicks)
Bermuda would be out of debt in no time…but you bigots don’t want that, you just want to continue playing the victim and blaming everyone else for your problems.
No it has not. But it increased by 11x while you dreamers were in. $150m to $1,700m. A bunch of incompetent losers.
No wonder Roban, a member of the PLP Old Guard, wants to talk about pepper spray.
Too funny. Most of the additional debt was used to pay off the previous debt, at a lower rate than the PLP managed to negociate dingbat.
OMG – is anyone buying this?
Yep
193 lemmings
No, the voting is easily manipulated by one or two people with an agenda and way too much time on their hands.
One lemming. 193 times.
Onion juice is apparently. Go figure lol
Damage control from Alaska Hall. Quick Roban, get out there & say something. Doesn’t matter if it makes you look foolish. Anything to try to deflect from the COI.
Is the COI gonna go back to U.B.P. days, we’ll be suprised what we will find.
Then again we would’nt.
Well, since the UBP didn’t rack up 2 billion in debt who cares!!!!
Well the plp had 14 years to do that.
The COI did look at the last 14 years of UBP rule, just like the PLP’s 14 years. They looked at every qualified audit the UBP had over those 14 years, just like they looked at the years where the PLP had qualified audits. It was a very short meeting.
yo Rabain get the message your own bredgrin helped create the situation ….do you really need someone else to tell you that ….lets talk about 14 years of some pretty bad stuff
And 5 years of Bull S!@#.
you need meds, OJ….or another hobby. You’re not very good at ‘internet’, and you certainly have nothing to contribute to society.
“We note the recent Blue Ribbon Panel analysed a complex Airport construction and 30-year leasing project worth well in excess of $2 billion in a little over three weeks”
A contract’s value is ONLY on what money is going to be made from the contract. I is possible that the airport may make $2b over the next 30 years, but the majority of that will go to its expenditures, another $330m (or around there) will go to paying off the $250m+ it cost to build it plus interest, and anything beyond that will be profit shared with the government. To keep saying we are losing $2b that would never see in ANY circumstance is deliberate misleading and lying to the people.
And the reason it only took a panel 3 weeks to review the documents is because they already had all the answers and didn’t have to investigate. They listened to testimonies from other opinions on the matter, but concluded that those opinions didn’t fully align with the facts at hand.
It’s like watching a Sean Spicer briefing, but without the flare
Boring regular nonsense from the plp
Don’t you realise you are turning the electorate against you
It appears the PLP can not do or say anything right. Even hard core supporters are moving towards swing voters !
The paid clickers have been busy on this story I see.
lol… finger must be tired. Shows the mentality of the individual(s) who believe by doing this, it devalues the comments the blogger is passing on.
Here let me help you, I’ll start by adding the first five.
SMH
Bloggers been up all night dislike,dislike,dislike.
I am jealous that you have more dislikes than I do!
This is the PLP’s ‘Hilary email’ issue.
It will be brought up by the PLP whenever they want to detract/distract the public from any issue of importance.
“But, the pepper spray incident…..”
More drivel from Roban. What a waste of space to have him sitting as an MP.
Oh, you said sitting. My bad.
Report required as to why plp put seniors out front to do their dirty work and break the law….
calm down Sir. Complaints have been filed and the video evidence submitted which shows who did exactly what.
Roban,
GO GET A LIFE… The pepper stray issue has one simple answer… THEY BROKE THE LAW AND YOU SUFFER, IF I WAS A CHIEF INSPECTOR, I WOULD ALSO ORDER TO SPRAY, AS THE PROTESTERS HAD ENOUGH WARNINGS, CHRIS FURBERT WAS WARNED IN THE MORNING AND CHRIS ADVISED THE POLICE THAT GOOD LUCK, SO WHAT WOULD YOU THINK THE POLICE WOULD DO… IN FORCE THE LAW MATE… PEOPLE CALLING THE POLICE NAMES, BLOCKING THE ENTRY TO THE HOUSE AND SO ON!! THE UNION LEADERS, PLP MEMBERS SHOULD HAVE ADVISED THE PROTESTERS IN A BETTER WAY, AS ALL OF THEM WHERE ADVISED!!
Alaska Hall slapping out some centuries on dis one.
Oh please. This is ridiculous.
YAWN.
When Baron is silent then you know something is up.
Oh look. The PLP care about the people. They want an investigation into why people were pepper sprayed when they were illegally blocking the HOA. I better vote for them and ignore all the other stuff coming out of the COI.
Ignoring the results of commission of inquiry makes you foolish and an irresponsible citizen. The PLP supporters should be demanding anserws from their party. These results are a direct reflection of how much the did NOT give a rats you know what about their supporters.
No way Jose. I am Standing Strong….for Bermudians. The COI was just a big plot against the God fearing leaders of the PLP. It is an election ploy and can be ignored. What is really important is the pepper spray incident….and jetgate.
Sadly, many will do just that. It is astonishing that people can ignore what has been done to them and their country.
Spray em again and again if they attack you, I wasn’t as if the police went to them and sprayed them on purpose
Lookout Walter! There’s an elephant in the room! Forget about the lawbreaking citizens who got a mild dose of pepper spray – shall we talk about the elephant instead?…. What?… you can’t see it? Oh.
It’s funny that the PLP still hasn’t been able to understand the Blue Ribbon Panel analysis and continues to spew bogus numbers.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAHHAAH!!!!!
My Index finger is getting tired from doing so many clicks on these posts!
What is really telling about the PLP Clickers is the lack of dedication. You guys jump into a post and click on day 1 but by day 2 most of you disappear. You feel so strongly one day but the next, even if it is still on the first page….meh.