Kalain Ho­sein

Hours af­ter po­lice of­fi­cers stopped the sale of the self-ti­tled “de­con­struct­ed” dou­bles at a gas sta­tion and con­ve­nience store on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith of­fered an apol­o­gy to the busi­ness place, re­scind­ed the act and al­lowed sales to re­sume.

Po­lice of­fi­cers had vis­it­ed the St Christo­pher’s Ser­vice Sta­tion ear­ly yes­ter­day and told gen­er­al man­ag­er An­dre James and his staff that the pop­u­lar lo­cal del­i­ca­cy could not be sold to the pub­lic. The of­fi­cers ex­plained that since food is pre­pared in-house, like a restau­rant, it was in con­tra­ven­tion of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance in ef­fect to pre­vent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

“They asked that we not con­tin­ue the sale of processed foods from to­day (yes­ter­day). They were very gra­cious in al­low­ing us to get rid of what we had to­day. That in­cludes the dou­bles, the meals that we sell and pre­pare out of the kitchen,” James told Guardian Me­dia.

Asked about the oth­er meals the ser­vice sta­tion sold, such as sand­wich­es, beef pat­ties and oth­er pies, he said, “The of­fi­cers said that the sand­wich­es are fine, they’ll let us go ahead with the sand­wich­es.”

He added, “They were do­ing what they were in­struct­ed to do. We promised them we would com­ply with their in­struc­tions. No griev­ance, no com­plaint.”

Of­fi­cers al­so re­port­ed­ly stopped the sale of pre-packed food at Massy Stores’ Wood­brook branch yes­ter­day as well.

But hours lat­er when he was con­tact­ed for com­ment Grif­fith ad­mit­ted that the of­fi­cers had made an er­ror.

“One or two of­fi­cers prob­a­bly mis­in­ter­pret­ed [the] reg­u­la­tions. It hap­pens.”

Grif­fith went fur­ther by is­su­ing a re­lease ex­plain­ing the sit­u­a­tion and of­fer­ing an apol­o­gy to both busi­ness­es.

“In the first in­stance, po­lice of­fi­cers stopped the sale of pack­aged “de­con­struct­ed dou­bles,” as well as oth­er pre-pack­aged meals at St Christo­pher’s Ser­vice Sta­tion, Wright­son Road, Wood­brook,” the re­lease stat­ed.

The TTPS’s re­lease added, “Po­lice of­fi­cers al­so or­dered the kitchen at Massy Stores Lim­it­ed, French Street, Wood­brook, to be closed and that the sale of pre-pack­aged food items be stopped.

“Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith said this was done in er­ror. When he was made aware, the CoP re­mind­ed the rel­e­vant of­fi­cers in the par­tic­u­lar di­vi­sion of the reg­u­la­tions of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance, which al­low for the prepa­ra­tion and sale of such pre-pack­aged items.”

Clause Five of the lat­est ver­sion of the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance states: “For the avoid­ance of doubt, street vend­ing of food and bev­er­ages and all re­tail food ser­vices (in­clud­ing restau­rants in-house din­ing and take­away ser­vices), ex­cept dis­count stores, mar­kets, su­per­mar­kets, fruit stalls or shops, veg­etable stalls or shops, bak­eries and “par­lours,” for the pro­vi­sion of food or oth­er ne­ces­si­ties of life, shall be closed for op­er­a­tion dur­ing the pe­ri­od set out in reg­u­la­tion 10.”

The po­lice’s ac­tion at the St Christo­pher’s Ser­vice Sta­tion quick­ly start­ed trend­ing on so­cial me­dia and drew sev­er­al com­ments from users.

But af­ter Grif­fith re­scind­ed the act, James came out in de­fence of the TTPS and thanked the pub­lic for their sup­port.

“We would like to thank T&T for your amaz­ing sup­port and Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith and those in au­thor­i­ty for your con­sid­er­a­tion on this mat­ter. We are de­light­ed to be able to serve you with “ORIG­I­NAL FAT BOY dou­bles” and our oth­er pre-pack­aged “good to go meals” from 6 am on Tues­day,” a re­lease from the sta­tion said.

The pre-pack­aged dou­bles have been a hot sell­er since St Christo­pher’s in­tro­duced them Fri­day, with over 900 dou­bles pack­ages (3,600 dou­bles) sold as of yes­ter­day. The “de­con­struct­ed” dou­bles are sold in a con­tain­er with the bara and chan­na sep­a­rate­ly to main­tain fresh­ness while condi­ments are picked up at the sales counter.