More Improvements needed with bands, parents warned to take control of minor children.
PHILIPSBURG: --- The Police Department along with the prosecution on St. Maarten said that the 2015 Carnival festivities which concluded on Monday was a successful carnival season, however, the head of the traffic department Benjamin Gout said that (truck drivers) need to comply with the requirements in order to make the carnival parades much smoother. Gout said that despite the rigorous inspection three of the trucks that were carrying the bands on the day of the Grand Parade broke down. He said another hindrance for the police is the lack of compliance from the truck drivers who fail to comply by having a second driver with them before the parade kick off, and the lack of fire extinguishers on the trucks. Gout said that some truck drivers show up late and this he said keeps the parade back. On Thursday (Grand Parade Day) police said that they had to rush the carnival parade on the request of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) because minors that participated in the children parade fell ill due to the intense heat that day.
Gout said that because they were forced to rush the carnival parade last Thursday some road users going to the Pointe Blanche area were not happy because they closed off the road earlier.
As for the new policy that was implemented this year to curb the behavior of revelers press prosecutor Tineke Kamps said that some 40 persons were detained for bad behavior, of the 40 persons that were detained 27 persons were fined immediately, six were placed in pretrial detention while the remainder were either released or summon to appear in court. Kamps said police collected Naf.14, 351.22 in fines. Both the prosecution and police said that people who did not have monies on them managed to call their parents or friends to bail them out. Law enforcement feels that the new policy worked well because revelers are getting the message that if they break the law they have to dig immediately into their pockets or stay in jail.
The police and prosecution said during the eight parades that were held six persons were placed in pretrial detention, three of whom are females that were arrested Monday night. Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson said that on Monday night the three females were engaged in a fight leaving one of them with stab wounds. He said all three of the women are currently behind bars and an investigation is ongoing. Henson further explained that during the jouvert jump up there was a huge fight that left several persons injured. He said several persons were arrested but was later released leaving one person behind bars, Henson said an investigation into that fight is currently ongoing.
Police said that next year they will be implementing some stricter policies for parents who leave their minor children to wander away from them. Henson said police had to baby sit 7 children between ages of 4 to 7 years old simply because these children got lost from their parents and were taken to the police booth. "Police officers had to actually babysit those children until they managed to find their parents and reunite them."
Gout said he has been managing the carnival festivities for the past five years and a lot has improved however, he feels that there is still room for more improvement if the bands, and those organizing the carnival comply with all the requirements. Head of the Police Patrol Division Randolf Bloieman said just over 30 persons were arrested in 2014 compared to the 40 that were detained in 2015.
