Curfew violators could face $1000 fine, 3 months in jail
Premier and Minister of Finance Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) said, “This curfew was put in place because the power was gone and the place was in darkness and because there was inappropriate activities such as looting. Many of the businesses were affected severely and in order to restore order and to maintain the confidence of businesses and the community, this curfew was put in place.
He further explained that his government did not want to continue the state of emergency indefinitely but they wanted to continue the curfew and they felt that it was imperative to bring the new bill to the HoA to be set in place. For the bill to become law, Governor Augustus J. U. Jaspert must approve the bill.
The new bill states that any person who is in violation of the curfew without lawful excuse will pay a maximum fine of $1,000, serve up to three months in prison or both.
The curfew has since been adjusted and now runs from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM daily.
“Stronger penalties”- Hon Fraser
While Members of the House, from both sides, were in support of the Curfew Act 2017, Opposition Member Honourable Julian Fraser RA (R3) believed there should be stronger penalties for persons in breach of the curfew.
“People are breaking into your property and taking what you own. We are telling people ok, the maximum penalty is $1,000. If I go out one night and I steal $10,000 worth of products; what is $1,000? Ten percent. Sounds like a good business deal to me. Pay $1,000 and you go home with $9,000.”
“Bill gives sufficient flexibility”- Hon Walwyn
Minister for Education and Culture, Honourable Myron V. Walwyn (AL), while giving his contribution to the debate, stated that he is in full support of the Curfew Act 2017 and commented that the bill gives “sufficient flexibility” while outlining some of the benefits.
“You have a curfew and you have a natural disaster and you want to get the country back to normalcy as quickly as possible but business people can’t come out and clean up their businesses and different things after the curfew time and that in and of itself could be counterproductive to moving the forward in a very swift way. So in the legislation, there are provisions for exemptions,” explained the minister.
He continued, “So within the order you can give an exemption to a particular class of persons or individuals that you know the service that they are providing is perhaps important to the overall recovery effort. So while the curfew might be in place for everybody else, because of the nature of the work under any circumstances that these persons may perform, they can be properly exempted under the piece of legislation.”
Hon Walwyn during his contribution, used an example to further explain why the bill gives good flexibility. He said, “If a hotel worker is to say I’m coming from work and I’m going straight home...but if the hotel worker coming from work make a stop by the rum shop to get a little shot of Brugal, you will be captured by the law because it says without any detour or any stops.”
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22 Responses to “Curfew violators could face $1000 fine, 3 months in jail”
I have a couple of vicious dogs in my yard to give me a chance against them. What do you have?
All non belongers and all non productive persos should leave the territory: the risk of crime is to great; its bad enough to have your fellow BV Islander grabbing your sh*t much less some non belonger who then package your items for exports to thier country and some of you want us VI Lander to laugh off such conduct: there is good and bad in every walk of life: this territory no longer have anything to offer any persons that is not or no longer gainfully employed and they should return to thier county of origin until such time( now say what you deserve)