Camille Clarke

Mem­bers of the Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion are now look­ing to make the next step in their op­po­si­tion to the con­tro­ver­sial De­fence (Amend­ment) Bill.On Wednes­day evening, po­lice of­fi­cers went ahead and held a can­dle­light vig­il on the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade in Port-of-Spain. They how­ev­er did not re­ceive per­mis­sion from act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Stephen Williams to stage a march from the Prom­e­nade.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, pres­i­dent of the as­so­ci­a­tion Sgt Anand Rame­sar said the of­fi­cers have to stay with­in the pa­ra­me­ters of the law and not take strike ac­tion."We are not go­ing on pre-emp­tive ac­tion. We will meet with com­mis­sion­er and dis­cuss the mat­ter. As for the prayer vig­il that took the as­so­ci­a­tion will wait for fur­ther in­for­ma­tion un­til com­ment­ing on it," he said.

When asked about the next course of ac­tion, he said: "The as­so­ci­a­tion will stay with­in the pa­ra­me­ters of the law. We are go­ing to meet with the com­mis­sion­er and then charge for­ward," he said.At the vig­il, for­mer pres­i­dent of the Cpl Em­rol Bruce said it was to pray for mem­bers of the Po­lice Ser­vice.Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 20 po­lice of­fi­cers took part. High-rank­ing mem­bers of the as­so­ci­a­tion and the Po­lice Ser­vice were ab­sent due to ill­ness and fam­i­ly com­mit­ments, Rame­sar said.

What was in­tend­ed to be a march from the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade to the Po­lice Ad­min­stra­tion Build­ing on Sackville Street turned in­to a cir­cle of com­rades, friends and rel­a­tives pray­ing for the wel­fare of the Po­lice Ser­vice."The pro­ces­sion was off and that is com­ing from the ex­ec­u­tive. We were still giv­en the go-ahead to have our as­sem­bly. We have been pray­ing on the in­side for a num­ber of years and that hasn't worked," he said.

Bruce said the prayers were for of­fi­cer Man­war­ing and the prob­lems the po­lice face right now.Sgt Hay­den Man­war­ing of San Fer­nan­do CID was killed dur­ing a con­fronta­tion with three men at Cipero Street, San Fer­nan­do.

"I have seen prayers on the prom­e­nade since I was a lit­tle boy and if we have to be treat­ed like the Bap­tist for pray­ing then so be it. I don't know that we are de­fy­ing the man­date of the com­mis­sion­er. We are pray­ing. We sent cour­tesy let­ters to the com­mis­sion­er that we will be hav­ing our prayers. I un­der­stand from sev­er­al per­sons who met with the com­mis­sion­er that it was no prob­lem. There was a prob­lem with the pro­ces­sion and there was no pro­ces­sion. Every­thing is above board," he said.