Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
The Police Service Social and Welfare Association is challenging statements made by Independent Senators Hazel Thompson-Ahye and Deoroop Teemul during this week’s Budget debate in the Senate, saying they do nothing to boost police officers’ morale or public confidence.
During Monday’s sitting in the Upper House of Parliament, Thompson-Ayhe said too many times, people see crime as a product of poor, black, disadvantaged, miscreant boys, with the police being quick to arrest them. She said a boy wearing a Russell Latapy High School uniform was more likely to face arrest than another from St Mary’s College and Queen’s Royal College.
“If the boys, who were made to lie in the mud in Sea Lots, were of a different hue or class, they would not have been treated like that. All children, without exception, are entitled to be treated with dignity,” Thompson-Ahye said.
Her statements evoked criticism from some readers and letter writers to Guardian Media, with one saying she “demonstrated the worst of us when she invited race and colour in her budget debate speech.”
Guardian Media contacted Thompson-Ahye but she refused to comment.
Yesterday, Police Service Social and Welfare Association president ASP Gideon Dickson said they had no data or information to suggest that police officers discriminate based on skin colour or class.
Dickson said officers operate with a Use-of-Force policy, and social media often shows their engagement in high-risk environments with a tendency for lawless behaviour.
He said when such behaviour occurs, mere police presence does not deter violent behaviour, so officers sometimes have to use their voices before resorting to non-lethal or lethal force.
“In this instance, there is a desire to protect life and limb or to protect the lives of others and have people taken before justice. So, whether the person standing there is East Indian, African or Caucasian, police have a responsibility, and it is captured in our policy, and we try our best,” Dickson said.
Former commissioner of police and National Transformation Alliance leader Gary Griffith called on Thompson-Ahye to retract her comment and refrain from making statements that only serve to divide T&T.
Griffith was CoP when the incident involving boys from Sea Lots was recorded and went viral in April 2020.
In a statement yesterday, he explained that having the boys lie on the ground was standard police protocol worldwide.
Griffith said when police officers face numerical superiority when attempting to detain lawbreakers, they do this primarily to protect the lives of officers, who could come face-to-face with an armed individual in the group.
“The temporary sacrifice of the group’s dignity is a small price to pay to preserve the lives of hard-working officers. To every police officer, I call on you to reject the Senator’s speech. Do not second guess yourselves, and continue to follow Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to preserve your life and the lives of your colleagues when faced with the real danger posed when police are outnumbered while making mass arrests,” Griffith said.
Meanwhile, in the Senate on Tuesday, Teemul said for the police to be effective with the state-of-the-art tools the Government proposed to provide, they require a state-of-the-art Police Service (TTPS). He said the TTPS leaves much to be desired, and the formation of vetted units with higher salaries to do regular jobs is an admission of corruption there.
Dickson said Teemul identified the TTPS without acknowledging the need for reforms in education, the judicial system, the medical profession and the legislature.
“We often use the police because police make good for entertainment and soft targets.”
He said police officers are not above the law, and there are the Police Complaints Authority, Professional Standards Bureau and Police Complaints Unit to deal with corrupt officers.
“For the Senator to use his parliamentary privilege and make statements without any significant data, we find that to be very spurious and not in the best interest of building that organisation which you would also depend on to bring perpetrators to justice,” he said. (See more on page 11)
