From Molotov cocktails to plastic bottles
A chronicle of security breaches, concerns at Gordon House
Published:Tuesday | June 4, 2024 | 12:08 AM
More than two decades ago, lawmakers were stunned after arsonists tossed homemade bombs into Gordon House, the seat of Jamaica’s Parliament, hours before a scheduled sitting of the House of Representatives.
Saturday’s latest attempt at torching the Parliament building is a sharp reminder that 26 years after the 1998 firebombing attack, the security of George William Gordon House still hangs in the balance.
In the October 27, 1998 incident, two Molotov cocktails were thrown at the front door of the downtown Kingston-based building.
The Gleaner reported at the time that the resulting blaze destroyed the door and damaged glass windows and a metal detector at the entrance. A number of plaques, including one to commemorate a royal visit in July 1955, were scorched by the fire.
Graffiti painted in red across the wall said, ‘Lazarus, Lazarus, Lazarus enough’.
The police launched immediate investigations and found two other bombs on nearby premises.
At the time of the incident, only one subofficer was on duty.
VULNERABLE BUILDING
A retrospective look at the vulnerability of Parliament will show that on December 17, 2014, the parliamentary staff turned up at work only to discover that Gordon House had been broken into.
The then House Speaker’s office as well as that of the Senate president were ransacked and computers taken.
Lawmakers in the Upper House conceded at the time that the security arrangements at Gordon House were urgently in need of attention.
Commenting on parliamentary security, Deputy President of the Senate Angela Brown Burke told The Gleaner then that “from time to time”, new security measures have been introduced at Parliament. She said it was in the best interest of lawmakers to have the building secured.
After the break-in, then Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, Tom Tavares-Finson, urged the Government to take immediate steps to improve the lax state of security at Gordon House.
Said Tavares-Finson at the time: “We are pleased to see the security officers working with the police, and we are confident that no effort will be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice; however, if the Government cannot protect the highest ‘court’ in the land, then how can we expect them to see to the security of all Jamaicans? There is no question that this is a significant failure on the part of the Government.”
Another incident 13 years ago showed the susceptibility of Gordon House in the face of a sudden event.
A Gleaner report on December 22, 2011 stated: “High drama unfolded yesterday before Jamaica’s Parliament on Duke Street in Kingston as the Reverend Joan Porteous, the National Democratic Movement (NDM) candidate for West Rural St Andrew, lit a large tyre close to the entrance to Gordon House, yelling that she came to ‘bun out corruption’.”
It continued: “Armed with a big, white Bible, matches and a flammable liquid, the NDM candidate created a stir when she proceeded to set the tyre on fire, apparently in hopes of sending a strong message to those who will occupy the seat of power that corruption should not be tolerated.”
HISTORY REPEATED
Porteous was later accosted by the then marshal to the Houses of Parliament, Kevin Williams, who sought help from the police at Gordon House to put out the fire she had started.
Fast-forward to Saturday, June 1, 2024, when a lone individual threw a plastic bottle containing a flammable substance at the Parliament building, setting it on fire and fleeing on foot. This latest incident was captured on CCTV.
The fire was reportedly extinguished naturally, resulting in minor damage to the building.
The police have since launched a high-level investigation into the incident, which has renewed calls for a review of security measures at Gordon House.
Security consultant Robert Finzi-Smith told The Gleaner on Sunday that even though the fire did not cause much damage, the fact that such an incident could occur at Gordon House was cause for great concern.
“The building also houses records, Hansard, and the recordings of the sittings of Parliament, all of that. And you can imagine what would happen if somehow everything got destroyed by fire? That alone should determine the level of security of the building, empty (unoccupied) or not,” he said.
Stressing that the security of the nation’s Houses of Parliament should be consistently prioritised, Finzi-Smith is adamant that they be enhanced to prevent similar occurrences in the future.