Senate President Dropped ‘F’ Word In Upper House. Dancehall Fans Want Him To Resign Since Artists Were Charged For ‘Same Thing’

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Tom Tavares Finson (Photo – Jamaica Gleaner/Gladstone Taylor)

Almost two years after the Montego Bay police pulled the plug on Jahvillani’s expletive-laced performance at Reggae Sumfest, his father-in-law Tom Tavares Finson, who is president of the Jamaican Senate, is being pressured, to resign after using an expletive during a sitting of the Upper House of the Jamaican Parliament two Fridays ago.

Under Jamaica’s Towns and Communities Act, any person who sings or uses any profane, indecent or obscene language shall be guilty of an offence and can be fined up to $2,000 in court.

Among those calling for Tavares Finson’s resignation are University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer, Damion Gordon and a slew of Dancehall fans, who cited artists who were arrested and charged for profanity and indecent language. Since the police started enforcing the laws in 2001, Sean Paul, Lady Saw, Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Sizzla, Mavado, Vybz Kartel, Kiprich, Alozade, Hawkeye, Fantan Mojah, Twins of Twins and several others have been penalised.

Tavares-Finson used the “f-word” at the March 26 sitting of the Senate, during a spat with Opposition Senator Lambert Brown who was debating a bill to amend the Disaster Risk Management Act, a misdemeanour for which he later apologised.

The comment came after Brown told Tavares-Finson, who is grandfather to Jahvillani’s son, said that he was not obliged to follow a position taken by the Opposition leader. “Let I tell you something, Senator Brown, ‘Don’t draw my tongue in here today,” Tavares-Finson warned, to which Brown, a trade unionist, countered: “I don’t draw men tongue”.

It was at that point that the Senate president declared:  “Everybody know how unuh reach over there, so don’t try that with me in here … and when I use that phrase, I am quoting a well-known Jamaican prime minister. Don’t draw my tongue in here today. F–king feisty!”

On Friday when the Gleaner published an article which quoted Gordon, a  lecturer in the UWI’s Department of Government, as saying that Tavares-Finson, an attorney-at-law, ought to resign for using the “f-word” at the sitting of the Upper House of Parliament, as his conduct “was unbecoming”, some Dancehall fans cheered with joy.

According to them, many Dancehall entertainers have been arrested for using curse words in their performances, which was not as serious a platform as the nation’s Parliament.

They expressed profound agreement with Gordon who noted that “nothing short of Tavares Finson’s resignation would suffice, as the Senate was conceived to be an honourable institution and a model of civility, decency and exemplary public conduct”.

“The Senate president of all people derelict his own civic duty and defiled the Senate with his crude behaviour and should therefore resign,” Gordon had told The Gleaner.

Even though Tavares-Finson had said during the meeting that he was sorry for cursing at Brown, Gordon had insisted that the apology did not go far enough and that a resignation was required, as “it must be shown that public and elected officials are held to the same standards as average Jamaicans”.

“Ordinary citizens have been detained and fined for using similar language. His resignation would be the equivalent,” he declared.

While many commenters sympathized with Tavares Finson and argued that Lambert Brown was being very annoying, the Dancehall fans did not agree, but instead demanded that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) senator recuse himself from the Senate presidency, claiming that to do otherwise was to be double-standard.

“He should step down of course. Onu wah charge artist and local man fi badword so him fi resign too. This country and law is so damn double standard. If me cuss badwords at my work that’s either suspension or fire so him must go,”
angel_petal said.

“If him di deh pon a show police wunda lock him up,” ocondo876 said, while another commenter surmised that Tavares Finson “Nah hol no medz”.

Artists Who Were Penalized

The police had started videotaping the Reggae Sumfest show in what they claimed at the time, was a bid to take strong action against artists who “apparently believe that they can flout the law by using expletives on stage”.

At the 2001 staging of Reggae Sumfest, the police charged Lady Saw, Bounty Killer, Alozade, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, and Merciless, as well as American rappers Snoop Dogg and Ja Rule for using expletives during their performances.

In July 2003, Sean Paul was issued a summons by the St. James police for using indecent language on stage during his performance at Reggae Sumfest.

In July 2008, Bounty Killer was charged with disorderly conduct and using indecent language after using profanity during his performance at Reggae Sumfest.  Bounty had belted out a barrage of expletives and left the stage after patrons started to boo him for attacking the characters of two fellow artists.

In January 2009, Mavado was fined $3,000 or 30 days in prison, by a Spanish Town Resident Magistrate, for using indecent language during his performance at Sting on Boxing Day a few weeks before during a clash with Vybz Kartel.  Kartel who like Mavado, used a string of expletives during his performance, was similarly charged.

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Vybz Kartel v. Mavado – Sting 2008

Sizzla was charged for using expletives onstage during a performance at social on the grounds of the Falmouth Police Station in late March 2015. He was later fined $1000 when he appeared in the Falmouth RM Court.

Other Dancehall fans sought to juxtapose recent comments by Prime Minister Andrew Holness about the need for artists to be more responsible by refraining from making violent-laced lyrics, with the utterances made by Tavares Finson, as ample reason for him to resign as Senate president.

“True man these politicians are a set of nastiness. The PM needs to place the blame on his colleagues the same way he is blaming dancehall artists for violent lyrics.   The dishonesty and lack of a proper moral authority in government is stifling,” beauxjeffrys33 argued.

“Haven’t dancehall artists been arrested and charged for that kind of thing. Why not him. Seems unfair, karismaricqueen reasoned.