GORMAN BANNISTER IS ARRESTED
Governments often do stupid things when they are in
power and think that they know it all. One such event was the arrest and
questioning of Gorman Bannister, son of the late Everett Bannister, a
confidante of the late Sir Lynden Pindling.
Mr. Bannister, the younger, has been a thorn in the side of many an
administration. During the Ingraham
years in particular, he had a publication called Black Belt News which
specialized in scorching the earth and terrorized the Ingraham administration,
accusing them of engaging in lies and accusing the former Prime Minister of
being an agent of the United States government.
In all that time and as bad that got, Mr. Ingraham never sent the police
after Gorman Bannister. You will remember that there is a man called Omar
Archer, a complete and utter reprobate, who published nasty things about the
Christie Administration. The police were
going after him for criminal libel and for various other offences. There was stall delay and defer until the
general election intervened. He even went
to jail when he couldn’t make bail. He
jumped out of the window of the police lock up and broke his legs. We had hoped that Mr. Archer broke his neck
but no such luck. Then there was and is
the case of Krissy Love, another reprobate, the female version, who is on the
run in the U S hiding out from a Bahamian arrest warrant because she attacked a
judge with her nasty brand of political commentary. Nothing has been done by this FNM government
to get her back in the country to face justice. We give that background as we
report on the zeal with which in the current era Gorman Bannister was arrested
last week. Mr. Bannister now uses the
What’s App platform to spread his special brand of commentary. It is hard hitting and tough. But if you look back at the history of governments
prosecuting people on these kinds of offences, you see they have been
singularly unsuccessful from Glenroy Nottage, to Lionel Dorset, to Rodney
Moncur and Philip Miller. All of the
prosecutions failed. In recent times,
Maria Daxon and Omar Archer. The public seems not to like these prosecutions
and sympathizes with the accused. Why
then would the police go with guns drawn into Gorman Bannister’s house and take
him away, charge him with assault because he refused to give up his phone. They confiscated his phone. Question: how do you assault a police officer
who has three other men with him with submachine guns. Inquiring minds want to
know. Then they questioned him about criminal libel in five matters and slander
on another. One of them was a man named
Ozzie Poitier who Mr. Bannister accused of sending a drone around his home to
spy on him and his wife. He dared Mr. Poitier to come personally so he could
deal with him. That was too much for Mr. Poitier and his friends. The talk
around town is that Mr. Poitier is close bosom buddy of Minister of National
Security Marvin Dames and that is why the police came with their guns
drawn. Suffice it to say, this just
energizes Gorman Bannister and the authorities especially the weak Marvin Dames
will have hell to pay.