Cro Cro suspended from CEPEP job after highway cuss out

Weston
Weston "Cro Cro" Rawlins

VETERAN calypsonian Weston "Cro Cro" Rawlins has been suspended from his job at the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP).

This after a video posted to social media on Tuesday showed him shouting and cursing another motorist while he (Cro Cro) was driving in a CEPEP pick-up van.

In a release issued yesterday, CEPEP chairman Ashton Ford sought to distance the state-run company from Cro Cro. “The views, information or opinions expressed in the recent video of an employee using offensive language belong solely to the individual and does not in any way whatsoever represent those of The CEPEP Company Limited.

"The position of The CEPEP Company Limited is straight-forward and uncompromising – we do not and will not tolerate any kind of belligerent language or behaviour. The company sincerely apologizes for any distress caused by the individual’s utterances and wishes to assure the public that necessary measures would be put in place to avoid any similar occurrences,” CEPEP said in the statement.

Speaking yesterday on local radio station I95.5 fm, chairman Ford confirmed that Cro Cro was suspended with immediate effect pending an investigation. The 41 second video starts with the driver who made the recording putting down the window of the front passenger door and shouting as Cro Cro's CEPEP van came alongside him.


Transcribed conversation

Driver: Come off the phone...you'll kill people!

Cro Cro: F**k away with you, dats my phone haul yuh c**t nah.

Driver: You cyah drive and talk on the phone yuh d****ss.

Cro Cro: F**k away with you, you is police? Haul yuh mother c**t.

Driver: You will go on the phone again.

Cro Cro: Is my phone.

Driver: Yeah go on the phone again, it's against the law.

Cro Cro: Is my phone, you name police?

Driver: Yuh fool, yuh fool...thank God for CEPEP yuh driving ah car, doh mash up de people van.

Cro Cro: I driving ah 350 Mercedes Benz, I is Cro Cro! You in yuh small car.

Driver: Yeah, yeah, yeah.


Contacted for comment, Cro Cro was unrepentant and insisted he was defending himself claiming that the motorist who recorded the video used racial slurs at him. Cro Cro told Newsday he was defending his ethnicity as the other driver called him a stupid n****r.

He said the racial slur aroused his anger and caused him to defend himself in a robust manner. Cro Cro said he has already written a calypso about the issue and revealed he was on his way to record it at a studio when Newsday called him.

“That video that is being shown (on social media) is one sided. It does not show his racist attack against me. The man used racial slurs and I could not take that. In the United States, people kill and get killed for racial hatred and using racial slurs,” Cro Cro said.

He added that he deliberately identified himself to the driver of the other vehicle, “Because I wanted him to know who I am and that I am not afraid of standing up for my rights. I always stand up for black people.”

While not apologetic for his utterances as captured in the video, Cro Cro said he was sorry if he brought CEPEP into disrepute.

“If it was Lent and I was in the Pope-mobile or I was driving my own private vehicle, I would have done the same thing! Unfortunately, I was in a CEPEP vehicle at the time and I apologise for that.”

On him being suspended, Cro Cro said: "Before CEPEP, I was alive and kicking so with all due respect, if that is what they have to do, that is what they have to do. When they investigate, I hope they get to the truth that somebody riled me up from a racial point of view and made me respond in that manner.”

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"Cro Cro suspended from CEPEP job after highway cuss out"

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