Derek Achong

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has claimed that some peo­ple were paid to par­tic­i­pate in yes­ter­day’s vi­o­lent protest ac­tion over po­lice bru­tal­i­ty in and around Port-of-Spain.

Speak­ing at a news con­fer­ence at the min­istry’s of­fice at Aber­crom­by Street in Port-of-Spain, hours af­ter the un­rest com­menced, Young claimed that he had re­ceived re­ports of per­sons be­ing re­cruit­ed by “crim­i­nal el­e­ments” to per­form or­ches­trat­ed acts in­clud­ing block­ing roads and clash­ing with po­lice of­fi­cers. 

“I un­der­stand peace­ful protest and peo­ple be­ing emo­tion­al­ly up­set about the in­ci­dent that took place on Sat­ur­day but it has be­come very ob­vi­ous, very quick­ly, that many of these in­ci­dents that are not peace­ful are be­ing stirred by the crim­i­nal el­e­ments in our so­ci­ety,” Young said.

Young did not re­veal who were the “crim­i­nal el­e­ments” be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed by law en­force­ment of­fi­cers were but said: “Crim­i­nal el­e­ments are not al­ways who we call gang mem­bers.”

Dur­ing the press con­fer­ence, Young not­ed that the protests were sparked by a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing in Mor­vant on Sat­ur­day, in which Joel Ja­cob, Noel Di­a­mond, and Is­rael Clin­ton were killed. 

While Young ad­mit­ted that he too had viewed CCTV footage of the in­ci­dent, he called on cit­i­zens to wait on the re­sults of in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­ing con­duct­ed the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA). 

“At the end of the day that is what us law-abid­ing cit­i­zens want. It is not for us to play judge or ju­ry or for us to de­cide who was right or who was wrong in these sit­u­a­tions,” Young said. 

Ques­tioned whether the protests in bor­der­ing com­mu­ni­ties in east Port-of-Spain con­trolled by mem­bers of the coun­try’s ri­val gangs may be an in­di­ca­tion that they had tem­porar­i­ly put their dif­fer­ences aside in an ap­par­ent show of sol­i­dar­i­ty, Young said yes. 

Young con­firmed re­ports that a third-floor win­dow at the Min­istry of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Le­gal Af­fairs build­ing at Rich­mond Street had been hit with a pro­jec­tile. 

Young stat­ed that he was not too con­cerned by the in­ci­dent as over the past few years there had been sev­er­al iso­lat­ed cas­es of per­sons fir­ing long-range shots at tall build­ings in Port-of-Spain in­clud­ing the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion build­ing at St Vin­cent Street. 

“They (such in­ci­dents) are not that in­fre­quent with the in­dis­crim­i­nate shoot­ing. I al­ways say when per­sons shoot up in the air, the bul­let has to come down. There is no cause for con­cern at this stage,” Young said. 

How­ev­er, he not­ed that he was dis­turbed by re­ports that some po­lice of­fi­cers were fired up­on while re­spond­ing to in­ci­dents in east Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day morn­ing. He claimed that no po­lice of­fi­cers had been se­ri­ous­ly in­jured, at the time of the press con­fer­ence.  

Young al­so sought to as­sure cit­i­zens that the TTPS and the De­fence Force had been de­ployed to strate­gic lo­ca­tions in and around the city to keep the peace and to en­sure that roads are not blocked when com­muters are re­turn­ing home, yes­ter­day evening. 

“I am ask­ing per­sons to be care­ful, be vig­i­lant, and do not take un­nec­es­sary risks. This is be­ing dealt with. There is ab­solute­ly no need for pan­ic,” Young said.