Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith says citizens have the right to protest but must do so within the confines of the law. He says people wishing to protest must be guided by the regulations, which state that no more than five persons will be allowed to carry out this action. The following is a press release from the TTPS:
Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, says it is the right of persons to protest. But they must protest within the confines of the law and with the necessary approval from the Office of the Commissioner of Police.
The CoP says it has come to his attention in the public domain that the Office of the Commissioner of Police is not approving applications for protests. That is furthest from the truth, the CoP says. “Whether applications are for protest over bad roads, poor facilities, or the mandatory vaccines issue, persons must apply for approval and give good reasons why they need to protest.”
Commissioner Griffith says the public must realize that we are not living in ordinary times as we are in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic. There are public health regulations in place to battle the virus and because of that, life is not the same. The CoP says persons who wish to protest must be guided by the regulations which state quite clearly that no more than five persons will be allowed to carry out this action.
Commissioner noted that an application was approved for a march from Morvant to Port-of-Spain two weeks ago, and the persons were kept within the confines of the law. He said another person made no application, organized a protest and had the faces of the protesters hidden. Unfortunately for the leader of the protest, he showed his face and the TTPS will be calling on that person shortly.
The CoP has taken note of the protests taking place in several Caribbean countries including St Vincent and the Grenadines where the Prime Minister was injured from a flying stone. The protest, according to the CoP, came about as countries moved to make it mandatory for citizens to take the vaccines.
The CoP said no such application has been made for a protest over mandatory vaccines in Trinidad and Tobago.
