MARIGOT:--- On Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning violence broke out in Sandy Ground after a video was posted on social media and various WhatsApp groups implicating the Gendarmes in a motorcycle accident that injured a young man that was riding a scooter.
The video that was posted accused the gendarmes of running over the young man it also went on to state that the young rider was in a coma, all of which were false information. All of the false information posted on social media is the cause of the violence in Sandy Ground.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Prefet Vincent Berton said because of the false information he said that four vehicles were burned, three businesses vandalized, and two vehicles belonging to the Gendarmes were also damaged while a senior officer was also injured.
The rioting started in Spring, Concordia, where a number of gendarmes responded to the scene and began controlling scooters. During this control the scooter rider, riding at high speed with a pedal rider tried escaping from the gendarmes, the rider and the pedal rider were without helmets, and no registration plate. The gendarmes did start a pursuit but ended it when they realize how dangerous it was to continue, however, the rider collided with an oncoming vehicle at an intersection, and since he was not wearing any protective gear he suffered facial injuries,.
"He is conscious, his life is not in danger and he has never been in a coma," said the prefet.” The latter insisted on denying the accusations against the gendarmerie. On the contrary, he had brought first aid to the victim while waiting for the arrival of the firefighters.
“Around 9:30 p.m. we were alerted that garbage cans were set on fire, so we sent a patrol which confirmed this fire and which, following this, they remained on Nettle Bay. They noticed individuals moving garbage cans and felt "a rise in power of young people in the neighborhood", explains Lieutenant-Colonel Maxime Wintzer. “The captain on duty made contact with the young people to start a dialogue, but he fell into an ambush, under a rain of cobblestones which reached him and slightly injured the gendarme who came as enforcements”.
In order to secure the perimeter, the gendarmerie diverted vehicles wanting to go to Sandy Ground, at the roundabout of the old tourist office. “However, around fifty individuals came up to harass the gendarmes who were forced to withdraw and call for reinforcements. It was only after the “indispensable” collaboration of President Louis Mussington that a dialogue was opened with the young people of the district. A first lull was felt around 2 a.m. until a total calm was regained around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, July 12.
