FETE TOO LEWD
Magistrate refuses liquor licence for Manzanilla Cooldown
Trevor Burnett
Thursday, February 15th 2007
There will be no Ash Wednesday Cooldown at Manzanilla Beach this year, if a Sangre Grande magistrate has her way.
Senior Magistrate Cheryl Ann Blake yesterday refused to grant the bar licence for the staging of the annual beach lime.
Magistrate Blake, however, instructed the applicant, Joseph "Jo-Jo" Legall, of his right to apply to a judge in chamber for the licence.
In her ruling, the magistrate said, "The immoral stripping by young women and the intolerable lawlessness of patrons without the police performing their duty, which was publicised, does not augur well."
She was referring to last year's event, in which several female patrons exposed themselves while performing during a competition.
They were competing for an outfit sponsored by a popular Arima store and $100 donated by a member of the audience.
Contacted on the matter yesterday, Legall said, "I feel the matter should not be publicised and made to be scandalous, since we have a good chance of getting the licence from the judge in chamber."
Legall will have to wait until tomorrow, when his attorney will address the judge in chamber for the granting of the all-important bar licence.
The Manzanilla Ash Wednesday Cooldown was started by radio personality Tony Philips in 1998, which then rivalled the traditional Maracas Ash Wednesday Cooldown.
Today, the franchise has changed promotional hands and has grown into one of the biggest post-Carnival activities in Trinidad and Tobago.
At a post-Carnival news conference on April 2, 2006, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul said an investigation was being launched into the conduct of police officers at the 2006 Manzanilla Ash Wednesday Cooldown.
The investigation surrounded female participants engaging in obscene behaviour, exposing their private parts for the crowd.
Commissioner Paul had promised that action would be taken against officers, who it is alleged were aware of the activities and did nothing to stop the vulgarity.
He also ordered that the people guilty of participating in the offensive behaviour be sought out and prosecuted.
Similar investigations are being conducted by former Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Ancil Antoine, whose soldiers were also present at the incident.
If any action was taken in these investigations, they were not made public.
Two weeks ago, at a joint news conference with head of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago Brigadier Peter Joseph and Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier Edmund Dillon to discuss security plans for Carnival 2007, Commissioner Paul noted that there would be a police presence at both pre-Carnival and post-Carnival activities, including the cooler fetes, and that there would be no repeat of obscene behaviour which occurred at last year's "Carnival Cool Down" in Manzanilla.
He added that if it did reoccur there would be "prompt action to stop it".
