The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

A magistrate on Friday urged a young man to avoid risky situations after convicting him of possessing Indian hemp and placing him on probation.

Senior Magistrate Raquel Whyms accepted Lade Knowles’ guilty plea after the court heard he was found in possession of Indian hemp during an arrest made at the 2026 New Year's Day Junkanoo parade. She ordered him to undergo six months of drug counselling.

Before passing sentence, the magistrate also issued a stern warning to the defendant, stressing the importance of self-preservation and avoiding situations that could place him at risk of further arrest. She warned the defendant that large crowds and volatile environments could quickly place him back in conflict with the law.

“If you see me, basically became an adult in jail, things like Junkanoo and Carnival. You can’t get me go them places. Nowhere there’s a bunch of crowds where even if I think I blink or spit I could get arrested for something,” she said.

“Stay home. You go out there to Junkanoo. Somebody provoke, do something, next thing you in a fight. Next thing you mix up. You see how the police just grab all y'all in, because as far as the police concerned, ‘Come all, y'all look like a bunch of dope heads’. So they just throw the net,” she said.

“Why you in the sea swimming you don’t have to be swimming?”

“Y’all don’t have nobody guiding y’all?” she added. “You have adults who speak to you? You spend too much of your young life in jail as it is. You should be so busy trying to keep your nose clean and trying to stay out of anything would look, smell, act, walk like trouble.”