Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Oropouche East MP and UNC’s shad­ow Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has ques­tioned if the po­lice com­mis­sion­er, by way of her at­tor­ney, can ques­tion the fair­ness of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), then what is the hope for the av­er­age man in the coun­try?

Mooni­lal was speak­ing to the Sun­day Guardian af­ter Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher was re­leased with­out charge from the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion yes­ter­day evening.

Mooni­lal said, “If the com­mis­sion­er of all peo­ple can raise ques­tions about fair­ness, about po­lice ac­tion—the un­der­ly­ing is­sue I have heard from her at­tor­ney is whether or not this was prop­er and whether this was in keep­ing with the law, there are se­ri­ous is­sues that have arisen now.”

He added, “It is an­oth­er sad day for the Po­lice Ser­vice and for the coun­try un­der this ad­min­is­tra­tion that is man­ag­ing the po­lice ser­vice. It is a sad day when the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice rais­es ques­tions about fair­ness.”

Mooni­lal said while Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has sought to dis­tance his Gov­ern­ment from the ar­rest of Hare­wood-Christo­pher, he has to take some of the blame.

Mooni­lal added, “This speaks vol­umes about the treat­ment of the av­er­age man or woman who is not a po­lice of­fi­cer and who is clear­ly not a Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. If the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice can make a com­plaint about fair­ness, can make a com­plaint about what could amount to vic­tim­i­sa­tion, this is a very se­ri­ous mat­ter, and it falls at the steps of the Prime Min­is­ter and the Gov­ern­ment, who have ap­point­ed all of them.” Mean­while, at­tor­ney and for­mer mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PolSC) Mar­tin George la­belled the re­lease of Hare­wood-Christo­pher with­out charge as a “tragedy and com­e­dy of er­rors” on the part of the TTPS.

He told the Sun­day Guardian yes­ter­day, “One won­ders if it is that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is do­ing in such a sce­nario that you cre­ate all this dra­ma and all this sen­sa­tion­al­ism and all of this neg­a­tive pub­lic­i­ty for T&T on the world stage and then she walks out with­out any charge. What were you think­ing when you even ini­ti­at­ed this process when you ar­rest­ed her? Who were the di­rect­ing minds be­hind this?”

George said it does not re­flect well on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice in the coun­try. He went fur­ther in say­ing that there will be “dif­fi­cult ques­tions and dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions” be­tween Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin and Hare­wood-Christo­pher be­cause “at the end of the day, you do not em­bark on this type of ex­er­cise as a frol­ic or a game.”

He said au­thor­i­ties will have to probe deep­er in­to this ar­rest of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er to get to the bot­tom of the mys­tery of what prompt­ed it. George said this sce­nario has the po­ten­tial to desta­bilise the TTPS; how­ev­er, the coun­try will have to see how it is man­aged go­ing for­ward. “One could not imag­ine that there could be com­fort­able re­la­tions or com­fort­able deal­ings go­ing for­ward be­tween the com­mis­sion­er and any of the main play­ers who or­ches­trat­ed this en­tire sce­nario. How could she feel any sense of trust, loy­al­ty, re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and re­li­a­bil­i­ty in some­one who has ba­si­cal­ly act­ed, ba­si­cal­ly in the Julius Cae­sar play, where he turned and said, “Et tu, Brute?” or in oth­er words, “You too, Bru­tus?” You of all peo­ple, my right hand, you have par­tic­i­pat­ed.”