Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CANPTT) is call­ing on cit­i­zens to take ac­tion against the abuse of fire­works, fol­low­ing what they de­scribe as the "flip­pant and dis­mis­sive" re­spons­es of both the Act­ing At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty.

The ac­tivists urged cit­i­zens to "flood the po­lice sta­tions with re­ports of the il­le­gal use of fire­works." Do not re­main silent in the face of this law­less­ness.

This fol­lows a Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Press Con­fer­ence about the State of Emer­gency (SOE), where the Act­ing At­tor­ney Gen­er­al stat­ed that the SOE was "not for deal­ing with things like fire­works."

CANPTT ex­plained that the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go hoped the SOE would bring re­lief from the "in­ces­sant and in­dis­crim­i­nate use of fire­works," which has caused im­mense suf­fer­ing to fam­i­lies, pets, the el­der­ly, and those with PTSD or sen­so­ry sen­si­tiv­i­ties. In­stead, they said, their con­cerns were met with dis­re­gard and triv­i­al­iza­tion.

CANPTT stressed that fire­works, like gun­fire, cre­ate dis­tress and anx­i­ety, and for many, the con­stant ex­plo­sions trans­form homes in­to bat­tle­grounds, tak­ing away cit­i­zens' peace, safe­ty, and right to a liv­able en­vi­ron­ment.

The group con­demned the gov­ern­ment's in­ac­tion, stat­ing that "ig­nor­ing the is­sue sends a clear mes­sage: that the rights and well-be­ing of the peo­ple you swore to serve are sec­ondary."

CANPTT al­so voiced their sup­port for Roger Mar­shall, co­or­di­na­tor of the Fire­works Coali­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (FACTT), who has per­sis­tent­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for a safer, more peace­ful so­ci­ety.

They now urge the Act­ing At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter to re­mem­ber, "Your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is to the peo­ple, not to the prof­its of fire­works ven­dors or the fleet­ing in­dul­gence of those who dis­re­gard the law. The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go de­serve bet­ter, and we de­mand bet­ter."