Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) Di­rec­tor David West is stand­ing firm on his de­ci­sion to com­ment on the num­ber of fa­tal po­lice shoot­ings since the State of Emer­gency was de­clared.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, West re­spond­ed to an on­line pe­ti­tion call­ing for his re­moval af­ter he ex­pressed con­cern about the in­crease in fa­tal po­lice-in­volved shoot­ings.

Con­tact­ed last Fri­day by Guardian Me­dia, West said the PCA was ac­tive­ly mon­i­tor­ing the five shoot­ings, adding that the au­thor­i­ty was com­mit­ted to thor­ough­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing each in­ci­dent, in ac­cor­dance with its leg­isla­tive man­date.

“The PCA re­mains stead­fast in its role as an in­de­pen­dent over­sight body and con­tin­ues to call for ac­count­abil­i­ty, trans­paren­cy, and ad­her­ence to the rule of law in all po­lice in­ter­ac­tions with mem­bers of the pub­lic, par­tic­u­lar­ly in pe­ri­ods of height­ened se­cu­ri­ty op­er­a­tions,” the PCA stat­ed yes­ter­day.

A so­cial me­dia group claimed that some con­cerned cit­i­zens were call­ing for West’s dis­missal. The group claimed West lacked bal­ance and sup­port for law en­force­ment at a time when the na­tion was bat­tling ris­ing crime.

It added that West has a his­to­ry of not sup­port­ing po­lice and ac­cused him of us­ing his plat­form to cast doubt, ques­tion po­lice con­duct, and de­mand in­ves­ti­ga­tions. West, it claimed, has adopt­ed a pos­ture of crit­i­cism, ob­struc­tion, and an­tag­o­nism to­wards po­lice.

“Fire David West. Re­move him from of­fice. Re­place him with some­one who will work for the peo­ple, not against them. The safe­ty of our na­tion de­pends on it,” it added.

In re­sponse, West said his com­ments were in keep­ing with his con­sti­tu­tion­al du­ties.

“As an in­de­pen­dent civil­ian over­sight body, the PCA’s state­ment was is­sued with­in the con­text of its leg­isla­tive man­date, es­tab­lished un­der the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty Act. Calls for the res­ig­na­tion of the Di­rec­tor in re­sponse to the law­ful ex­e­cu­tion of the PCA’s du­ties are there­fore not­ed but will not de­ter the au­thor­i­ty from ful­fill­ing its man­date. The PCA re­mains com­mit­ted to im­par­tial­i­ty, fair­ness, and the pro­tec­tion of all cit­i­zens’ rights.”

West’s com­mit­ment comes as po­lice killed a sixth man on Sat­ur­day.

The TTPS said that around 1.30 pm, of­fi­cers re­spond­ed to a do­mes­tic dis­pute call at Lovers Lane, El Do­ra­do. When they ar­rived, they heard screams com­ing from in­side the house, but when they called out, no one an­swered.

The of­fi­cers, led by Cpl Per­sad, breached a side door and en­tered. As they did, Mustapha Rawl­ins, 42, re­port­ed­ly at­tacked Per­sad and was stab­bing him when his col­leagues shot Rawl­ins.

Per­sad and Rawl­ins were tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, where Rawl­ins was de­clared dead on ar­rival. Per­sad was treat­ed and dis­charged around 6 pm.

Ef­forts to con­tact and speak with Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro on the po­lice killings were un­suc­cess­ful.