An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing ac­tivist Umar Ab­dul­lah have threat­ened to take le­gal ac­tion against the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) if it fails to re­spond with­in 14 days, to is­sues aris­ing from its in­ac­tion on dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro for wear­ing the Pun­ish­er em­blem on his uni­form.

In a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 11, at­tor­neys Keron Ramkhal­wan and Fay­ola Sandy al­leged that the PolSC has un­rea­son­ably de­layed ad­dress­ing the mat­ter. They sig­nalled their in­ten­tion to file an or­der of man­damus to com­pel the PolSC to ini­ti­ate dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against Gue­var­ro, seek le­gal costs and pur­sue any oth­er or­ders or di­rec­tions the courts deem just. The at­tor­neys ad­vised that if the PolSC fails to re­spond by Feb­ru­ary 25, they will move to file a ju­di­cial re­view caim on Ab­dul­lah’s be­half.

Ab­dul­lah, leader of the New Wave Move­ment, first sub­mit­ted a for­mal com­plaint to the PolSC on Ju­ly 20, 2025, call­ing for dis­ci­pli­nary ac­tion against Gue­var­ro and an or­der re­strain­ing him from wear­ing any sym­bols, in­signia, or lo­gos as­so­ci­at­ed with The Pun­ish­er while on du­ty.

Re­view­ing the Po­lice Ser­vice Act, Po­lice Ser­vice Reg­u­la­tions, and oth­er le­gal no­tices gov­ern­ing of­fi­cial uni­forms, Ab­dul­lah’s coun­sel ar­gued that there is no le­gal au­tho­ri­sa­tion for po­lice of­fi­cers, in­clud­ing the CoP, to wear un­of­fi­cial em­blems or lo­gos.

“The wear­ing of such a sym­bol is there­fore con­trary to the stan­dards of pro­fes­sion­al­ism, uni­for­mi­ty, and in­sti­tu­tion­al in­tegri­ty re­quired of the Po­lice Ser­vice,” they stat­ed.

They al­so high­light­ed that the Pun­ish­er em­blem is wide­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with vig­i­lante jus­tice and ex­tra-ju­di­cial vi­o­lence. In T&T, where con­cerns about po­lice ac­count­abil­i­ty and al­le­ga­tions of ex­tra-ju­di­cial killings per­sist, they said its adop­tion is “deeply trou­bling” and could un­der­mine pub­lic con­fi­dence in the po­lice ser­vice.

“The ad­di­tion of the Pun­ish­er sym­bol is ul­tra vires the Po­lice Ser­vice Act and Reg­u­la­tions,” the let­ter not­ed.

Ab­dul­lah’s at­tor­neys said the em­blem “pro­motes and/or con­dones a ‘judge, ju­ry, and ex­e­cu­tion­er’ men­tal­i­ty, which is in­com­pat­i­ble with de­mo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples, the rule of law, due process, and re­spect for hu­man rights.” They claimed Gue­var­ro’s ac­tions have erod­ed pub­lic trust, weak­ened in­sti­tu­tion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty, and fos­tered per­cep­tions that law en­force­ment op­er­ates out­side law­ful bound­aries.

The PolSC ac­knowl­edged re­ceipt of Ab­dul­lah’s com­plaint on Au­gust 11, 2025, and in­di­cat­ed it would con­sid­er the mat­ter un­der Sec­tion 123 of the Con­sti­tu­tion. How­ev­er, Ab­dul­lah’s coun­sel said Gue­var­ro has con­tin­ued wear­ing the em­blem, in­clud­ing to me­dia brief­in­gs.

“The con­tin­ued wear­ing of the em­blem ex­ac­er­bates con­cerns raised in the com­plaint, fur­ther un­der­mines pub­lic con­fi­dence in the lead­er­ship of the Po­lice Ser­vice, and re­in­forces per­cep­tions that ex­tra-ju­di­cial killings are be­ing nor­malised at the high­est lev­el of law en­force­ment,” Ab­dul­lah’s lawyers said.

Re­fer­ring to the orig­i­nal Pun­ish­er com­ic se­ries, Ab­dul­lah and his at­tor­neys not­ed that the cre­ators ex­press­ly cau­tioned against law en­force­ment ap­pro­pri­at­ing the sym­bol.

Cit­ing na­tion­al sta­tis­tics, Ramkhal­wan and Sandy al­so high­light­ed that more than 500 peo­ple lost their lives in po­lice-in­volved killings in T&T be­tween 2014 and 2025, height­en­ing pub­lic con­cern over the use of lethal force.

They called on the PolSC to ei­ther ini­ti­ate dis­ci­pli­nary pro­ceed­ings against Gue­var­ro or pro­vide rea­sons for its in­ac­tion and dis­close find­ings of any pre­vi­ous dis­ci­pli­nary steps.