An­na-Lisa Paul

Hours af­ter crim­i­nal el­e­ments fire-bombed her car soon af­ter she ar­rived home fol­low­ing a day of re­spond­ing to fiery protests in Port-of-Spain on Tues­day, Ag Cpl Mole­ka Christo­pher yes­ter­day vowed not to be run out of the com­mu­ni­ty she had grown up in.

An of­fi­cer for the past 17 years, Christo­pher said while her fam­i­ly’s safe­ty re­mains up­per­most in her mind she will con­tin­ue to do her job and up­hold the law with­out fear or favour.

De­clin­ing to be pho­tographed when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed her home yes­ter­day, Christo­pher, who lives op­po­site to Des­per­a­does’ pa­n­yard in Laven­tille, said the un­for­tu­nate in­ci­dent de­vel­oped when the ac­cess road to her home was blocked dur­ing protests on Tues­day.

“I was try­ing to get out and couldn’t so I called the pa­trol to as­sist to get them to stop be­cause they weren’t budg­ing when I asked them. The pa­trol came and they had a lit­tle con­fronta­tion…the of­fi­cers run them down and one per­son was de­tained. Pri­or to the of­fi­cers com­ing, they were talk­ing about all po­lice have to feel it be­cause of what they go­ing through how many years now and we tak­ing ad­van­tage of them as po­lice.”

The ri­ots were sparked by the po­lice killings of Joel Ja­cob, Noel Di­a­mond and Is­rael Clin­ton in Sec­ond Cale­do­nia, Mor­vant, last Sat­ur­day.

Af­ter con­clud­ing her du­ty shift on Tues­day and re­turn­ing home around 1 am yes­ter­day, Christo­pher said she parked her car on her prop­er­ty and en­tered the house.

As she chat­ted with her fam­i­ly about the protests ear­li­er, Christo­pher said, “We heard the loud ex­plo­sion and we were shak­en at first, won­der­ing what it was.”

Christo­pher said they then heard a crack­ling sound and up­on check­ing re­alised her car had been sent on fire. The ma­li­cious move al­so led to her sis­ter’s car be­ing dam­aged.

Christo­pher said she has lived in the com­mu­ni­ty for the past 38 years and nev­er had any prob­lems with res­i­dents.

Al­though her two sis­ters are al­so po­lice of­fi­cers, Christo­pher said, “I be­lieve it has to do with the protest ac­tion against the in­jus­tice they say they are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing by the po­lice.”

She added, “It’s a typ­i­cal case of mon­key see, mon­key do be­cause these guys were up yes­ter­day and they were pret­ty nor­mal un­til they start to see so­cial me­dia with all this hap­pen­ing and they de­cide to get in on the ac­tion.”

Christo­pher thanked her TTPS col­leagues and the fire ser­vice for their quick re­sponse to the in­ci­dent.

“My tem­pera­ment is not one to back down or be scared. Sev­er­al years ago they would have chased my neigh­bour out of her home and they have not been back since but I can say on the record that they will not be chas­ing my fam­i­ly out of here.”