And while Barrow's conspiracy theory may be arguable there's no arguing around the fact that police took at least 30 minutes and possibly more to effectively respond to the looting on Albert Street. When they did respond the crew withdrew almost automatically. So why didn't they do it sooner if everyone knew where they were heading? That's the question we put to Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby today.
Gerald Westby,
"As you can see we cleared up Albert Street pretty quickly but you have to understand that we added forces and we were able to maintain. The BDF were brought in by Albert Street quite quickly and the situation was brought under control very quickly."
Jules Vasquez,
Sir we have on tape half an hour of looting of Hofius.
Gerald Westby,
"Yeah but we responded quickly as possible and got the forces in there. We had police on Albert Street and we brought in additional support and that is what we did and we were able to effectively clear the area."
Jules Vasquez,
Could you not have done it pre-emptively?
Gerald Westby,
"Yeah but we had the security forces, we had police out there, we had other areas that we were looking at the and the security force was brought in and they got it under control. You have to blame the looters too who went on Albert Street and we acted and we brought in the police as quickly as possible to the area. We brought the looters under control quite quickly."
Jules Vasquez,
Did you all place any priority on cordoning off Queen Street? We know there was a meeting of city representatives, PUP representatives, at Independence Hall around the time and there seemed to have been an effort to blockade the bridge to make sure no one went across the bridge on to Queen Street.
Gerald Westby,
"Well you have to understand they are Ministers of government and you have a responsibility to protect the Ministers of government so that was done."
Jules Vasquez,
It seems a greater priority was placed on securing Independence Hall than was on say Albert Street.
Gerald Westby,
"We had other forces and one force was brought on to Albert Street to complement the efforts of police so we had a diverse use of our police resources out there."
In random but no doubt related acts of violence, 2 people were shot last night, not by police, and one person was stabbed. The most serious injury is to 22-year-old Francisco Hernandez who was shot in the head at the corner of King and Far West Streets. There are very few details available from police on these crimes. A pair of policemen were also injured last night in a mini-riot on Mayflower Street in the area known as Bailar. Again, not much is known other than the confirmed report that Inspector Anthony Rosado received a broken hand, while a constable was injured to his head.
