Police and the Pan pushers

Tillah Willah

....I’ve been here before.The last time I remember the police being so hognorant at Panorama was when Papa Patos was at the height of his unpopularity. The Guard and Emergency Branch were on a rampage. One scraped my arm and tried to grab my camera because I was trying to get evidence of his brutality.

Since then, pan and other people-centred elements of the Carnival have continued to die slow painful deaths. Even as the season gives birth to new children. I do not join the new life in the Greens. The new life that does not have any connection to its past. We are on the track to celebrate the life that once was. Dragging our band’s pans towards the stage.

The belligerent cobos swoop down. Assault rifles and batons at the ready. The moon shines on. We pull the racks forward, breaking into a run at the bottom of the ramp to get enough momentum to take them up and onto the stage.

It’s not an easy thing to push pan. But I’d rather take my jamming in the pushing than the playing. Spending weeks living in a panyard drilling a song into your brain every night for two months. Living, breathing, eating, dreaming this song. This ten-minute piece of heaven while there is a fete going on just next door where maybe five people out of the 10,000 care about your sacrifices to make it to this point.

Pan is a community effort. Pan Trinbago, which has instructed the police to move dread with pan lovers, didn’t seem to get that memo. Meanwhile on the Greens: pockets are picked, young women get groped by tusty men over-stimulated by the sight of so much of Trinidad’s finest. Women are being attacked on their way out of the Savannah, by strangers and lovers too. Women getting slapped up by jealous boyfriends.

....There is a tiny German woman up in one officer’s face. He keeps his cool, having enough presence of mind to know that a big black badjohn police hitting a little white woman in Carnival is a bad scene. I don’t take that chance. Knowing that Rasta is usual suspect. I stay behind, shouting my insults outside of baton range.

Love City Pan Dragons,

You just don’t get it. What the writer is referring to is not simply a matter of ‘identifying’ the people affiliated with the band. There is a general contempt and very nasty attitude by some members of Trinidad’s so-called police force. And that attitude is at times exacerbated when it comes to pan people, on the drag, supporting or assisting their band or whatever. And these same “police” can be seen sometimes falling over themselves to please when dealing with “foreigners.” Several people in Trini are familiar with the behavior of some of these individuals who are supposed to protect and serve. Mind you, not every single one of these policemen are this disgraceful. There are some who are dependable and a credit to their uniform and who go out of their way to assist the public any day of the year. But there is also an unfortunate number of them who are quite ‘drunk’ on power trips, are bullies, and worse especially when armed heavy assault weaponry. And for clarification several of them swagger around pan people with these heavy weapons, not only their batons. So along with the courteous policemen, pan people also bump into these other nasty characters who should not be anywhere near the public.

Replies

Claude Gonzales February 5, 2013 at 10:21pm

Every once in a long while I hear an honest PORTRAIT OF TRINIDAD from a lone struggling voice. The rest of the time I come on WHEN STEEL TALKS and hear the ROMANTICISTS and the SENTIMENTALISTS and the PNM BRAINWASHEDTISTS extolling the virtues of an ISLAND PARADISE.
Love City Pan Dragons February 5, 2013 at 6:24pm

Why can't the bands simply provide those whom they have chosen to push the racks with a shirt or head rag or something that clearly says the name of the band and "PAN PUSHER" in big letters so the police can tell who they are and leave them alone?
- wmlpan > Love City Pan Dragons February 5, 2013 at 8:10pm
  
  Love City Pan Dragons,
  
  You just don’t get it. What the writer is referring to is not simply a matter of ‘identifying’ the people affiliated with the band. There is a general contempt and very nasty attitude by some members of Trinidad’s so-called police force. And that attitude is at times exacerbated when it comes to pan people, on the drag, supporting or assisting their band or whatever. And these same “police” can be seen sometimes falling over themselves to please when dealing with “foreigners.” Several people in Trini are familiar with the behavior of some of these individuals who are supposed to protect and serve. Mind you, not every single one of these policemen are this disgraceful. There are some who are dependable and a credit to their uniform and who go out of their way to assist the public any day of the year. But there is also an unfortunate number of them who are quite ‘drunk’ on power trips, are bullies, and worse especially when armed heavy assault weaponry. And for clarification several of them swagger around pan people with these heavy weapons, not only their batons. So along with the courteous policemen, pan people also bump into these other nasty characters who should not be anywhere near the public.
  - De Bluejay > wmlpan February 6, 2013 at 8:52pm
    
    This is exactly correct. You don't understand if you don't live here. I was naive when I arrived many years ago. Now this "formerly foreign" pannist who has lived here over 12 years can verify...nastiness and bullying are too often the norm by police at pan events, driven by their own perceptions of self- importance (uniform, gun) and their disdain for pan. BUT...there are also individuals in the police who love and even play pan. They are the ones not noticed...doing their jobs properly and respectfully.
Trevor Emanuel Cooper February 5, 2013 at 1:51pm

One of the greatest problems of the Average Trinidadian is "To show that he or she is in-charge". Whether you go to the hospital, government offices, Panorama, wrecking services, police, regiment wherever same old scene, even Pan Trinbago.
- evan lobo > Trevor Emanuel Cooper February 6, 2013 at 12:10am
  
  trinis hate each other really - except if is a free party- it is a country of real hypocricy and charade
- Mercer Ramdoo > Trevor Emanuel Cooper February 5, 2013 at 5:39pm
  
  But you are so right! That's the cocoon mentality, maturity, morality Third world madness..

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