Camille Clarke

Protest­ing pris­ons of­fi­cers claimed yes­ter­day they were work­ing in an "ar­cha­ic" sys­tem with "pure evil, rapists, mad peo­ple and gang mem­bers" who were be­hind bars. They said so yes­ter­day as they con­tin­ued protest ac­tion fol­low­ing the killing of their col­league, Mar­vin Di­az, 35, who was shot dead by gun­men out­side a pub in Gas­par­il­lo on Tues­day. Di­az, who had been as­signed to the Gold­en Grove Prison Re­mand Yard, Arou­ca, had 14 years ser­vice. To reg­is­ter their angst at the sys­tem, the of­fi­cers marched through the streets of Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day to vent their feel­ings and frus­tra­tion.

The dis­grun­tled of­fi­cers marched from the Port-of-Spain State Prison on Fred­er­ick Street, down Pem­broke Street, across to Aber­crom­by Street, where they made a block to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty at Tem­ple Court. There they held a meet­ing with Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sub­has Pan­day. Fol­low­ing the meet­ing, Pan­day told re­porters is­sues con­cern­ing firearms, bul­let­proof vests, po­lice se­cu­ri­ty and the re­lo­ca­tion of pris­ons of­fi­cers would be dis­cussed to­day.

Pan­day said: "The is­sues of firearms will be dealt with. We are work­ing on an An­ti-Gang and Firearms Act to in­crease penal­ties and no bail for cer­tain of­fences." Pan­day, Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons John Rougi­er, mem­bers of the as­so­ci­a­tion, and Brent Thorne Di­az (who is the broth­er of Di­az and Garth Thorne Di­az, who died yes­ter­day) al­so at­tend­ed the meet­ing. To­day's meet­ing will be at­tend­ed by the act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice James Philbert and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter John Sandy.

Rougi­er said the meet­ing was to rec­ti­fy the prob­lems and the safe­ty of the of­fi­cers. "If we deal with them the coun­try will ben­e­fit," Rougi­er added. He said rel­e­vant is­sues were raised and hope­ful­ly would end to­day. He said the fam­i­ly of the slain men were in­vit­ed to his of­fice to dis­cuss fu­ner­al arrange­ments. Pres­i­dent of the Pris­ons Of­fi­cers As­so­ci­a­tion Ra­jku­mar Ram­roop said the mem­ber­ship was griev­ing. "We would like to come to a res­o­lu­tion and the meet­ing was fruit­ful. Fur­ther is­sues will be dis­cussed," Ram­roop added. Thorne, who put on a brave face, said the meet­ing was "sat­is­fy­ing and it is good for the pub­lic to know some­thing is be­ing done.

"It gave me a sense of clo­sure and we can have jus­tice for my broth­ers," Thorne added. A re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty said Min­is­ter John Sandy and Sub­has Pan­day have ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly. Pan­day con­demned the "wan­ton killings, adding that the Gov­ern­ment was deeply con­cerned about the death of Di­az and his broth­er Garth. He said: "The po­lice will leave no stones un­turned to bring the per­pe­tra­tors of this heinous crime to jus­tice. "It is re­al­ly sad when serv­ing of­fi­cers in the area of law en­force­ment and the pro­tec­tive ser­vices and our civil­ian pop­u­la­tion face this kind of at­tack at the hands of crim­i­nals."