The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Kindly publish this open letter to Commissioner of Police Mr. Ellison Greenslade.

Dear Commissioner Greenslade,

The public nuisance of loud music and drunken revelry emanating from Montague Park nearly every weekend continues.

Having tried every other avenue of approach to this problem, including directly contacting event organizers, in this last instance Mr. Eleazor Johnson, the local police, my MP and even letters to the newspapers, I have been thwarted at every turn.

I am a thirty-five year homeowner of the nearby residential community and I am again sitting in my bedroom at 8.30PM on a Sunday night with the windows closed but shaking in their frames with the air conditioning running because of the noise emanating from Montague Park.

At this moment I’m listening to what sounds like a pack of wild animals howling and screaming accompanied by drums. Add to this cacophony the sound of numerous motorcycle engines, car horns and sirens the result is bedlam.

I am quite certain that if an event of this kind were held in as close proximity to the homes of Messrs. Christie or Davis on a Sunday night, or at any other time for that matter, it would be shut down in a heartbeat. But we are merely common folk in Montague, or should that be Freetown, perhaps symbolic of the almost every weekend free for all’s held here, and of course we common people understand that some people are more equal than others.

I had occasion to write to you previously on April 8th 2013 concerning this very matter. I suggested at the time a possible solution by having people wishing to hold events in public spaces apply for and pay for permits. These permits would not only stipulate the hours of operation allowed but establish the conditions and rules for the use of musical apparatus, etc. On the spot fines for violation issued by police officers stationed for that purpose would see order properly kept; alas my suggestions were studiously ignored.

I should therefore be eternally grateful if you and your staff would condescend to provide a permanent solution to not only the extremely vexing problem of Montague but noise nuisance violations island wide as it would appear that we less equal or common folk have neither rights nor the protection of the law.

IAN MABON

Nassau,

February 19, 2017.

Ps. This evening they did turn the music off shortly after 9PM which is unusually early for these events, but I hasten to add that this is the exception rather than the rule and 9PM is not acceptable on a Sunday night in any event.