St. Peters:--- A group of angry band members from the St. Peters area attacked and assaulted blogger Judith Roumou on Sunday. Roumou in an exclusive interview with SMN News said that she was attacked on Sunday on the St. Peters main road close to the St. Maarten Academy.
Roumou said that she called the police but they never came (responded) to the scene. She said someone from among the group of attackers convinced them to leave her. She said she went home and it was at her gap where she was attacked, slammed and beaten. The attackers she said had bats, wrenches and other mechanical tools during the first confrontation.
The attack she said happened in the presence of the main attacker's parents whom she named. Roumou said she eventually went to the police station because an officer told her on the phone that she had to go to the police station to file the complaint. Roumou said she was advised to go to the St. Maarten Medical Center to get a doctor's report for the injuries she received to take back to the police station. Roumou had in her possession a copy of the doctor's report when she was interviewed by SMN News. "I went to the doctor like the police told me and they told me to come back with this report but when I returned there they told me I should go back on Monday and they will take an official complaint from me," Roumou said.
Roumou said three years ago she began making videos for the bands that participate in St. Maarten's Carnival, these videos she said are done free of charge and is uploaded to "YouTube". This year, Roumou said she made videos for Four M Band, Youth Waves Band and the Official Band. Besides that, Roumou said she also made videos of the carnival which was also uploaded to "YouTube". Roumou said this year the videos and the amount of hits each band got created some anger among the various bands. She said the members of Official Band felt that she was not giving them equal treatment and she was giving preference to other bands which she denied. She said the other two bands Four M Band and Youth Waves received more hits on YouTube and that is what created the anger and jealousy with Official Band. She said the members of Official band confronted her several times and places before but on Sunday a group of them met her and got physical.
Roumou said one night at the Carnival Village she was there and witnessed a confrontation between Official Band and Four M Band. The confrontation she said started when Official Band began to cause trouble with the members of Four M. "I was there speaking with Stuart Johnson and I witnessed what happened and I recorded it." Roumou said her other encounter with the Official Band members was in South Reward during the opening night but by then she was slandered on Facebook by these band members and she was not aware of it. She said other people who are part of her group on Facebook rebuked the persons who were slandering her and eventually she removed the music from YouTube hoping the controversy and constant attacks would stop because she is related to the members of Official Band. One of them even agreed to stop the attacks and move on but on Sunday that was not the case.
Felt Attacks are Politically Motivated.
Judith Roumou is well known to St. Maarten community because she has been writing and releasing emails that politicians wrote to each other. Roumou also attacked DP advisor Julian Rollocks after he refused to pay her for the work she did for him. For the past two weeks Roumou was on several radio programs and television programs speaking out against politicians since she claimed to have written proof on her allegations. Asked if she felt that the attack on Sunday had anything to do with the interviews she did on radio and television. Roumou said she believes that the attack on Sunday has everything to do with her being vocal on the matters she has spoken out about. Roumou said during the attack someone kept telling her the people she spoke out about will get her and they will sue her and her response was no one can sue if the information is true. Roumou said the attacker's mother and sister kept mentioning her blogs.
