The Mace Incident
On Monday, December 3, 2001, Stuart and Smith dominated the national news when they intentionally disrupted the Sitting of the House of Assembly. Both men charged from the Public Gallery onto the House floor and handcuffed themselves to the Mace (symbol of the House Speaker's authority) in protest against the "unfair gerrymandering of the constituency boundaries by the FNM Administration". The Mace was unable to be separated from the men and thus, the Sitting had to be suspended. The pair was jailed for almost 2 days but no charges were brought against them. Ironically, the BDM's Mace Incident was strikingly similar to an event of important political significance in Bahamian history known as Black Tuesday. On that particular day, April 15, 1965, then-Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Sir Lynden Pindling threw the Mace out of the House of Assembly window in protest against the unfair gerrymandering of constituency boundaries of the then United Bahamian Party (UBP) government.
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“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”
—Henry James (1843–1916)