Archive for February 26th, 2010
Chuckie postpones demo in favour of local show
(CNS): Former cabinet minister Charles Clifford has postponed the march on the Glass House as a result of scheduled changes to the Sister Islands Agricultural show. Clifford says that as a result of the significant support for the protest he also wanted to allow those who would have wanted to go to Cayman Brac to still do so. The march against government will now take place on Saturday, 13 March, at 2:30pm, starting by the Cricket Pitch on Huldah Avenue and leading to the front lawn of the Glass House. Clifford said he encouraged government not to schedule anymore events for 13 March that would interfere with the public protest. (Photo by Dennie Warren JR)
Clifford said that since the Ministry of District Administration has postponed the Cayman Brac Agriculture Show to 6 March as a result of the recent passing of Capt. Charles Kirkconnell, a decision he applauded, he would now change the date of the protest.
“The ministry is aware that it is usual for many people from Grand Cayman to go over to Cayman Brac for the weekend of the Agriculture Show,” he said. “It seems obvious, therefore, that this is a deliberate attempt by the UDP Government to hide from the cries of the people, to disrupt the protest and to excuse themselves from meeting the protestors at the Glass House.” Clifford said there was no reason why the government could not have scheduled it for the following Saturday, but they chose not to do so.
“We encourage the UDP Government not to schedule any other event or events for the 13th March 2010 that would conflict with the public protest march,” he added andnoted the premier’s announcement that he will not meet the protestors, or “bunch of rabble rousers” as he called them at the recent UDP public meeting.
“This public insult of the people by the premier notwithstanding, we remind the premier that the Cayman Islands does not operate a Dictatorial Government and the people will not allow the country to move away from the democratic form of Government that we enjoy today,” the former Tourism Minister stated. “This is a democracy and this public protest march is democracy at work. The elected UDP Government does not have the right to refuse to meet with the people whom they were elected to represent. If they refuse to meet with the people, then they do so at their own peril.”
Clifford said there had been a significant response to the march and he was expecting people to turn out in large numbers demonstrating fierce opposition to the “reckless and irrational” UDP Government policies.
Mother of gang victim speaks out against crime
(CNS): Cara Ebanks, the mother of one of Cayman’s murdered young men, has spoken out about the murder of her son, 20-year-old Marcus, who was shot and killed in Bonaventure Lane last July. In the same evening his 18-year-old brother, Rod, was injured and his 14-year-old cousin, Adryan Powell, was paralyzed. Although police say Marcus was an innocent bystander, they believe the shooting was linked to the gang violence shaking the community. In an interview with News 27, Ebanks speaks about her son and the crime wave that’s taking too many of Cayman’s young men, and now its children.
The grieving mother said she was still trying to come to terms with the death of her own son but hearing the news of four-year-old Jeremiah Barnes, it was almost too much to bear.
Police have yet to bring any charges regarding the shooting of Marcus, his brother or his cousin that night or in any of the gang violence cases from 2009 or 2010, with the exception of the shooting of Omar Samuesl in George Town a few weeks before Marcus was murdered. Three men have been charged and are currently scheduled to face trial in May of this year.
Police who are still seeking witnesses in the killing of Jeremiah have confirmed that the shooting is gang related but have stopped short of saying that they believe the same person is responsible for both murders.