On Friday December 24, Christmas Eve, Mr Lyndon ‘Jumbie’ Jones, a well-known local actor, stand-up comedian and MC, was invited to the police station by police officers who knew him, and once there he was placed behind bars where he remained until Monday, December 27.
Mr Jones, who was standing outside Nigel’s Supermarket waiting for a friend when he was approached by the police, was told only after he arrived at the Brickdam Police Station, that he was being booked on an allegation of robbery under arms. He was not given any specifics regarding where the alleged robbery took place, when it took place and against whom it was committed. He was not asked where he was on any given day or for an alibi. In fact, Mr Jones was not questioned at all. He was simply booked, placed in the lockups and left there.
Because Mr Jones was able to call his friend and ask her to collect his personal belongings when he realized that he was going to be locked up, his relatives and friends knew where he was and were able to take food for him. However, they too could get no answers as to why Mr Jones was behind bars, despite running back and forth between Brickdam Police Station and the Criminal Investigation Department Headquarters at Eve Leary. Mr Jones’s friends and relations have their own suspicions about his arrest and incarceration. They pointed to a triangular affair involving Mr Jones’s nephew, a woman and a senior police officer; an incident in which Mr Jones’s sister and nephew were locked up; and Mr Jones’s use of his television show, ‘Let’s Gaff GT Style,’ to speak to the injustice he believed was attending the issue.
Faced with a brick wall, Mr Jones’s relatives and friends used the only outlet available to them – mass media. Posts began to appear on Facebook and other websites detailing what was happening to Mr Jones. After local news outlets learned of the chain of events on Monday and started to ask questions, Mr Jones was suddenly released. He was not asked to post bail, nor was the allegation of armed robbery put to him again. Mr Jones was instead asked to give a statement detailing his arrest on Christmas Eve night.
Hours after he was released from the Brickdam lockups, Mr Jones told this newspaper how shocked he was that he had been locked up and that he now feared for his life. It must have occurred to Mr Jones as he sat in the Brickdam lockups cut off from his family at Christmas and with no one giving him any information that he could just as easily have been shot over the same ‘armed robbery’ allegation. Perhaps it was fortunate that he was arrested in the busy public area outside Nigel’s Supermarket on Christmas Eve.
There is a lot that does not add up with regard to the arrest and incarceration of Mr Jones. The most glaring is the fact that he is so well known. His work in local theatre is current as well as his numerous appearances in television and newspaper advertisements and on television shows. ‘Jumbie’ may be one of Mr Jones’s stage names, but he answers to it readily when fans approach him, always with a quick comeback or wisecrack. It would be ludicrous to imagine that Mr Jones could have been mistaken for an armed bandit.
The question also arises as to why the police would arrest an armed robbery suspect and not question him; not put a specific allegation to him; not search his premises for the weapon he allegedly would have used in the robbery and then release him without bail. Curiouser and curiouser, as Lewis Carroll’s Alice was wont to say.
Mr Jones’s contretemps with the police, in fact seems to point more to victimization, given the suspicions raised by his friends and relatives. Mr Jones himself had said he would prefer not to jump to any conclusions and would do his own investigations before pronouncing on the issue. He had also indicated that he would be willing to accept an apology; very generous of him considering what he would have endured.
Senior police officers professed ignorance of Mr Jones’s arrest, but Head of the police’s Tactical Services Unit Clifton Hickens subsequently met Mr Jones and apologized to him privately, telling him that his arrest had been a mistake; an explanation that does not hold water. Mr Jones is demanding, and he deserves, a public apology. He is also seeking legal advice on how to proceed with the matter which he should not let rest considering its similarity to other episodes involving the police and private citizens. That this could have happened to Mr Jones, a well-known personality who has interacted with endless police officers on both a personal and professional basis is cause for alarm; it could have happened to anyone and perhaps with more dire consequences.