(Trinidad Express) Police used batons and their fists to beat patrons during the 2012 National Panorama semifinals at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain yesterday, after hundreds of pan fans tried to push past barriers because they were blocked from walking between the North Stand and the Greens area.
Around 3.30 p.m. the access entrance to the Greens from the North Stand was blocked, preventing patrons from moving from one area to the other.
This year the Panorama event co-ordinators attempted to separate the Greens party area from the main event on the Big Stage.
This was done because of last year’s problems with sound systems and DJs virtually drowning out the sound of the pan performances during the semifinal.
There was limited access between the North Stand and the Greens yesterday as several hundred patrons walked across to the Greens to get food and join the lime which by 2 p.m. had swelled to thousands of people.
Police estimated the crowd at more than 40,000 in the Grand Stand, North Stand and Greens area.
Port of Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing told the Express that Fire Service blocked the tiny access point between the North Stand and the Greens because they said they had to control the size of the crowd and there were too many people clustered in that area by mid-afternoon.
More than 200 people gathered at the entrance and complained that they were not able to get to the Greens to meet their friends and family.
The crowd gradually grew angrier as police and National Carnival Commission (NCC) officials attempted to keep the crowd calm.
At about 4.30 p.m. a few people were allowed to go the Greens after a section of the protective temporary fence was moved to let them in.
This generated shouts of anger from other patrons who protested that others who knew people in the government were getting through while they could not.
At that time more than 100 people surged forward as they attempted to burst through the police barrier.
Several police officers moved forward and converged on the men and women who were trying to get to the Greens.
One officer walked toward a patron (who seemed to have changed his mind about going in) and cuffed him in the back of the head, the Express observed.
Police swung wooden batons through the crowd, hitting several people, the Express observed.
Several women screamed as the violence escalated. One police officer pushed a man to the ground.The man fell on his back and scrambled back to the North Stand.
Even as hundreds of people became involved in the melee, screaming, cursing and fighting to make their way through the crowd, there were thousands of patrons who did not see what had happened and continued to party to the sounds of pan.
Mayor Lee Sing confirmed to the Express that Fire Service blocked the access area between the Greens and the North Stand.
Lee Sing told the Fire Service and police to open several access points to allow people to pass between the two areas, after which the temporary barriers were pulled apart and patrons pushed past one another to get to the Greens.
Lee Sing said this was the first time the two areas had been separated and there was possibly the need to consider not having a North Stand.
“We’ve had Panorama before without a North Stand. It costs us a considerable amount to put up, about TT$8 million,” he told the Express during a brief interview at the access point between the North Stand and the Greens.
Asked about the use of force by police officers, Lee Sing said police would have warned patrons to stop pushing to get past the access point and to remain calm.
If they disobeyed, then the police would have had no choice but to take some kind of action, he said.
The Panorama semifinals continued without incident for several hours after the fracas.
