Part 2 of this article trilogy series looks at the pivotal events of August 08, when police fired tear gas on protestors, resulting in the arrest of the Antigua and Barbuda Freedom Fighters founders a few days later.
Shenell Williams and Donette Simon founded this non-profit, non-governmental organization in July 2021 as a result of their shared social worries about the COVID-19 pandemic and related vaccination requirements, as detailed in Part 1.
“The march brought together children, adults, and people of diverse religious backgrounds with the unifying purpose of giving the voiceless a voice against government mandates,” Williams added. “It started peacefully but rapidly turned into chaos when police unleashed tear gas.”
Simon told Trumpet News that she and Williams had sought for a protest permit but were denied because they received it late; she went on to say that this is when they decided to “Picket instead.”
“The authorities said we were marching and stated we were holding an unlawful public March and so on,” Williams explained. ” This was not the case; on July 20th, we sent a letter to the Commissioner of Police requesting the march. We were invited for an interview, along with one of our legal advisers. We were informed they would contact us on Friday, before the march on Sunday.”
“We received a letter from the police,” she says, “but it was too late for us to appeal to the Minister of Justice, Benjamin.” We immediately contacted the authorities to see whether we could continue with the march, but we were told no. This is when we decided to assemble and “Picket,” which is lawful once we are stationed in one spot.
When the founders and others arrived, a large number of police officers began intimidating individuals and ordered them to get off the road. “This event is illegal,” they said.
“We were like, ‘We don’t need permission to PIcket,'” says one of them. “Shortly after tear gas was sprayed from various angels, bringing chaos to our right to picket,” Williams stated.
The two founders were arrested and held in separate cells at the Antigua and Barbud Police Headquarters a few days later.
“No one could come to look for us unless it was our lawyer, to say the least, the experience was traumatic. The toilet wasn’t working, and the police were quite hostile,” Simon remembered.
Simon and Williams were both charged with organizing and engaging in an illegal gathering the very next day before being released on bail. According to Simon, Williams was additionally charged with encouraging violence because she went live on Facebook during the event, “crying and displaying what was going on.”
The organization’s mission and aim, as well as its ambitions for the future, will be discussed in Part 3 of this article series.
