Veteran selector and owner of Stone Love Sound System, Winston 'Wee Pow' Powell is calling on police to not arrest sound system selectors when sessions run over the 2 a.m. end time.
Powell says the selectors are just employees of the promoters and that it is the promotors who should be held accountable.
According to Powell, "the policemen are going around and locking up the sound system selectors. The latest one occurring in Dunkirk, where they locked up a sound man for breach of the Night Noise Act."
"There is no way, especially when we are playing in certain type of areas, that we can take it up on ourself an say lock off. It's the promoter! Just like me, I have a weekly event, Weddy, an we taking it back to an earlier time," Powell said.
He also added: "It's the promoters who take out the permits, so the police should ensure that they issue these permits to law-abiding citizens and the police should also ensure that the promoters adhere to the law."
Powell says there is already a general agreement among sound system selectors where, "basically, everybody feels the same way in which we normally comply (with the law) and when it reach certain time, we tone down the music. But the police, too, they are enforcing this Noise Abatement Act sometimes in areas where the noise doesn't bother anybody."
Over the past few weeks, at least two sound system selectors have had problems with the law. David McNaughton, a music selector was arrested while he operated the Jam Rock Disco at a dance in the Bryden Street area of East Kingston and another selector, playing for a sound called Qwalitex, was reportedly arrested at another street dance called 'Froggy Saturdays' in the east Kingston area.
However, the police say they are taking a zero tolerance approach to night noise.
Commissioner of Police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin said, "the matter of night noise is distressing not to just me personally, but to those people who have to suffer underneath it, and we have to put a stop to it."
Under the Noise Abatement Act, it is an offence for a person to sing or play any noisy instrument at any time of the day or night so that the sound can be heard beyond a distance of 100 metres and can be reasonably capable of causing annoyance to persons in the vicinity.
Officer, leave selectors alone! - Wee Pow says
Veteran selector and owner of Stone Love Sound System, Winston 'Wee Pow' Powell is calling on police to not arrest sound system selectors when sessions run over the 2 a.m. end time.
Powell says the selectors are just employees of the promoters and that it is the promotors who should be held accountable.
According to Powell, "the policemen are going around and locking up the sound system selectors. The latest one occurring in Dunkirk, where they locked up a sound man for breach of the Night Noise Act."
"There is no way, especially when we are playing in certain type of areas, that we can take it up on ourself an say lock off. It's the promoter! Just like me, I have a weekly event, Weddy, an we taking it back to an earlier time," Powell said.
He also added: "It's the promoters who take out the permits, so the police should ensure that they issue these permits to law-abiding citizens and the police should also ensure that the promoters adhere to the law."
Powell says there is already a general agreement among sound system selectors where, "basically, everybody feels the same way in which we normally comply (with the law) and when it reach certain time, we tone down the music. But the police, too, they are enforcing this Noise Abatement Act sometimes in areas where the noise doesn't bother anybody."
Over the past few weeks, at least two sound system selectors have had problems with the law. David McNaughton, a music selector was arrested while he operated the Jam Rock Disco at a dance in the Bryden Street area of East Kingston and another selector, playing for a sound called Qwalitex, was reportedly arrested at another street dance called 'Froggy Saturdays' in the east Kingston area.
However, the police say they are taking a zero tolerance approach to night noise.
Commissioner of Police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin said, "the matter of night noise is distressing not to just me personally, but to those people who have to suffer underneath it, and we have to put a stop to it."
Under the Noise Abatement Act, it is an offence for a person to sing or play any noisy instrument at any time of the day or night so that the sound can be heard beyond a distance of 100 metres and can be reasonably capable of causing annoyance to persons in the vicinity.