[Updated] A purported ‘protest’ was called for tonight [March 24] on the Cabinet grounds, and as of 10.30pm it appears that nothing is happening — past the police being present along with the media — however you can tune in and watch the stream below, and to warn, the stream is basically just showing the grounds.
A message circulating on social media states this apparent planned protest is about the “restrictions put in place over the past weekend” saying “it’s time to stand up for ourselves and our own people.”
Update 11.26pm: The protest never really got underway, with a handful of people seen across the street and what appeared to be one person [excluding the media and police] walking onto the Cabinet grounds. It was of high interest, with Bernews live stream on Facebook [you can watch the replay below] attaining over 10,000 views and 950+ comments within 90 minutes, as locals looked to see whether a protest would in fact take place. The police were present throughout and there was one person standing on Front Street shouting about their constitutional rights.
Update: Bernews spoke with the person who did attend. Dr David Chapman told Bernews, “I attended as a support and an example for the young people of Bermuda. They need to know that they have the right to freedom of movement and choice, even in trying times like these.
“My presence there was a representative of C.R.I.S.M. – the Cedar Rock Independence and Sovereign Movement. This movement has been conceived to promote the further progress of Bermudian people who have an ancestry arising out of enslaved African peoples and thus have lost their true national identity, while in the process having to assumed the identity of their colonial oppressors. Oppression of people’s movement has always been the modus operandi of colonial oppression and this is clearly continuing into the 21st century.
“Governments around the world are using the Covid-19 pandemic to impose many restrictions on the free movement and rights of its citizens, some of which have no basis in scientific validity and also stand to criminalise the innocent on behalf of the guilty.
“I think the imposition of these types of curfews are examples of restrictive guidelines that punish the innocent more so than targeting the guilty. They are too broad and indeterminate. Why should a person who may be out for a solitary exercise walk be punished the same as a partygoer who is attending a party of dozens of people? What danger in regards to Covid-19 is a boater on the water to others after 6 pm?
“This is a message to the Bermuda Government that there are some of us who are willing to speak up as a message of dissent and conscientious objection against guidelines that are oppressive, especially those that have not been vetted by the sitting members of our duly elected parliamentary bodies.
“I also want to send a message out to any of the organisers of the protest, and to be clear I was not one of them, that it is cowardly to ask people to come out for such an occasion but yet fail to come out yourself and declare who you are. Be strong, clear and stand up for your convictions, just as Sally Bassett was willing to do against those that oppressed her.”
