The Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago (ESCTT) joins its voice with the many citizens who are concerned about our rights to free speech
and assembly. In that regard, we unequivocally condemn the police action at the Labour Day celebrations in Fyzabad on Friday, June 19. Police action at the Labour Day Parade suggests an abuse of the use of force and an exercise in intimidation. The logic offered for the arrest of young Alyssa Phillips and her mother Camille Caresquero by the police is mind boggling. Have we reached a point in Trinidad and Tobago where citizens cannot join in the Labour Day Parade unless they have sought permission to do so from the police?
The ESCTT considers this illogical at best and unacceptable at worst. Many Directors of the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago recall marching with colleagues and fellow citizens on Labour Day. The day has always encouraged broad public participation in celebrations that recognise the protection of workers’ rights, the dignity of all persons, and the people’s right to protest in Trinidad and Tobago. Free speech has traditionally prevailed, allowing citizens to bring their concerns to the attention of the public and policymakers during Labour Day activities. Labour Day has never belonged solely to trade unions and their members, nor has it been only a day to commemorate Tubal Uriah Buzz Butler and his achievements.
We view the police action as an attempt to muzzle free speech and an opportunity for the police to practice the tactics of policing developed and championed by racist and oppressive police forces in the North. If that is how the nation’s budgetary resources are to be spent, to train and arm our police forces in these oppressive tactics, it is the right of citizens to call for an end to such wasteful use of resources. It is because of these over militarized and oppressive tactics, adopted by various police forces in the North and South, that campaigns have been mounted to ‘defund the police’.
As the first year of the new CoP draws to a close, we ask him to pause and question the wisdom of these tactics and examine in which countries have such escalatory
behaviour in policing not resulted in its own ugly dynamic. Examples can be drawn from around the world and even from states in our region including El Salvador,
Guatemala and Ecuador. We further question the desirability of such tactics by an arm of the State, for use in a growing racially charged Trinidad and Tobago.
We urge cooler heads to prevail.