Knight incident forces PNP to review security
THE ruling People’s National Party (PNP) is to review its election campaign security arrangements following a security breach at a political rally in Bog Walk Sunday night in which former security minister K D Knight was assaulted by a man said to be of unsound mind.
“We have a party security team that is responsible for platform security and we review it from time to time. While the incident is regrettable, we have to be careful that we do not get to the stage where the security is so stringent that our candidates cannot meet the people. So we will review it and make the necessary adjustments, if necessary,” PNP general secretary Donald Buchanan told the Observer yesterday.
According to Buchanan, it was the first time that such an incident had happened and he hoped there would not be a repeat. The PNP general secretary also called for greater alertness from the existing security detail.
Knight, popularly called the ‘Sheriff’, was assaulted while addressing the rally in Bog Walk, St Catherine.
The man was immediately attacked and beaten by irate PNP supporters, but was further thrashing after pleadings from Knight himself.
In the meantime, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it has had no cause for concern, at least not yet.
“None of the JLP candidates have experienced anything of the kind that happened to K D Knight,” general secretary Karl Samuda said yesterday.
“We have a loving platform and have no reason to worry that something like that may happen…” Samuda said. “However, you never can tell.”
Samuda said the JLP has a security detail in place and to date there have been no breaches.
“We have a security team that is responsible for security at our rallies and we examine it from time to time. But we hope we will not have to make any kind of wholesale changes to what we have currently,” said the JLP general secretary.
The attack on Knight is the first to have happened in recent time, and the second to have happened to a PNP MP. A Manchester MP was slapped in his face several years ago while at a function in his constituency.
