UNC: 1,000 cops not for ‘political harassment’

THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) yesterday warned that the additional 1,000 police officers being deployed as part Govern-ment’s new anti-crime intiative must not be used to politically harrass UNC members, or anyone opposed to the ruling People’s National Move-ment (PNM).

Addressing a news conference at Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday’s Port-of-Spain office, UNC chairman Wade Mark said the UNC strongly condemned what it viewed as “the political harassment” of Opposition Senator Arnim Smith by a police officer at a roadblock in Curepe on Friday night. According to police, Smith was stopped when he refused to slow down his vehicle at the roadblock. Smith told officers he had a licensed 9 mm handgun in his glove compartment. He was asked to produce the necessary licence. He produced it and the gun was handed back to him.  “The decision to increase the number of policemen on the streets of Trinidad and Tobago while laudable, is widely viewed by members of the public as a very limited response to the escalating crime wave in TT. This effort should be aimed at confronting the criminal elements and not to be used as an instrument of political harassment and intimidation of law-abiding citizens who are merely going about their business on a daily basis,” Mark declared. He stressed that while the UNC fully supports “herculean efforts” of the police and army to fight crime “with antiquated equipment and technology,” the Opposition sees Friday’s incident as “tantamount to political harassment.”

Mark described the officer in question as “a political PNM policeman” who makes a mockery of the Police Service’s oath “to protect and serve”. “The police service is a non-political service established to protect and serve the people of TT, and at the service of any government be it UNC, PNM or NAR. The police is there to serve any government that has won (general elections) fairly, squarely and democratically,” he said. The UNC chairman called upon Na-tional Security Minister Howard Chin Lee and Ag Police Commissioner Everald Snaggs “to thoroughly and comprehensively conduct an inquiry into this incident.” Mark added that the UNC was also keeping all of its legal options open at this time. He also lashed out at what the UNC claims is “the use of the police service by certain known PNM supporters to intimidate, harass and publicly compromise the personal security of any citizen of this Republic.”