Damion Crawford Says Gov’t Senator “Told Lies” On Him About Betraying Dancehall

Self-proclaimed Dancehall Defender Senator Damion Crawford has sought to stave off accusations which Government Senator Charles Sinclair levelled at him ‘of being duplicitous about Dancehall’ on Friday in the Upper House of Parliament.

On Friday, Sinclair, who is an Attorney-at-Law, had, according to The Gleaner sought to “remind” the Senate that when the principal Anti-Gang Legislation was being debated in the Lower House in 2013, Crawford was the third signatory to a committee report surrounding the introduction of a clause aimed at ‘criminalising the performance and recording of songs which promoted or facilitated criminal organisations or their activities”.

Sinclair had taken issue with the condemnation Prime Minister Andrew Holness faced from Crawford, after stating a few months, ago that Dancehall music was being overwhelmed by violent lyrics which is helping to fuel the crime rate and was also threatening the sustainability of the genre, this years after the PNP Vice President had himself, signed the dotted line on an anti-Dancehall document.

“Where I got the greatest surprise was to see our colleague senator, Damion Crawford, joined the fray of those levelling criticism at the Prime Minister,” Sinclair declared.

Senator Sinclair had also told the Senate that in 2013, Crawford, who was then a State Minister in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, along with his ruling PNP Ministers, had ordered the  National Intelligence Bureau to prepare and submit a list of 103 songs, released between 1991 to 2012, which contained lyrics which glorified violence – guns, gangs and which contributed to the propagation of the anti-informer culture.”

Crawford was absent from Saturday’s sitting, but Sinclair’s claim about the PNP ordering a list of songs, was repudiated by Leader of Opposition Business Senator Peter Bunting, who is a former Minister of National Security.

Bunting said Sinclair was “misleading the House” and explained that it was the Jamaica Constabulary Force which had taken the list of songs “in making their presentation to the joint select committee, that produced that evidence”.

“We didn’t ask them to produce it.   They produced that evidence, this list of songs,” Bunting had said.

Sinclair had also said that it was only the strong advocacy of civil society groups, backed by then opposition spokesperson on Culture, now Minister Olivia Grange, and current Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, which kept the controversial clause 15 out of the Act.

However, contrary to his assertions, Gleaner Parliamentary reports from 2013 indicate that both Crawford and Grange had demanded that the clause be deleted, during a joint select committee meeting.

Crawford had vehemently objected to Clause 15, which was being pushed by now PNP president Mark Golding and Peter Bunting, for the criminalization of the production of songs that incite violence against homosexuals, police, informants and other groups.

Crawford and Grange’s actions had spurred Gleaner columnist and Deputy Executive director of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Ian Boyne, to pen an article titled Politicians weak-kneed on hate music stating that “Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange and Damion Crawford put aside their political swords to high-five each other” and that “politicians could not agree on what’s really awful and repulsive about murder music”

But on Friday, Crawford complained to his Twitter followers that Sinclair had ‘told lies’ on him, in the Upper House and posted a screenshot of a 2012 Jamaica Observer article as evidence.

“JLP senator Charles Sinclair lied on my name today in the Senate while I was absent,” he wrote.

https://twitter.com/DamionCrawford/status/1403439086954745858

When @pariot_arh   asked Crawford to: “Quote the lie for us”,  Crawford replied: “He claimed i was in support of the anti gang proposal to criminalize dancehall… the article here captures how strongly I opposed it.”

“If pnp was in power we would hear the same thing how dance hall music is violent,” one Twitter user, said while another wrote: “Well you are the trickster aka liar after all.”

Over on where Crawford also shared the post, he was greeted with huge support.

“You’re making a lot of Politicians uncomfortable on both sides of the fence but you called out the JLP leadership is a Manners that even the dunce can understand it , Suh Den bex @damioncrawford The entertainment industry and Jamaicans in general thanks you,’ music producer Koolface wrote.

“@damioncrawford you have nothing to prove because you have always stand up for dancehall music,” eleyejah_positive noted.