Who is popular today?

HISTORY repeats itself.
When protests occurred in and around Port of Spain in 2020 after the police-involved killing of a group of civilians, then Minister of National Security Stuart Young cited “reports on the ground of people being paid to create disturbances.”
Last week, current minister Fitzgerald Hinds made a similar declaration on protests in east Port of Spain, Beetham and Sea Lots. Once more, the disturbance arose due to a police-involved killing, this time of a group of young men, including a 17-year-old.
“I say publicly, fortuitously we now have a very, very clear picture of what happened in those events, who was paid which money and by whom and how much,” Mr Hinds told the media last Friday.
“We have no doubt that there might have been – there would have been some political dimension to it.”
Those protests on July 4 caused incredible disruption. Roads were blocked with debris, state agencies such as the Solid Waste Management Company Ltd suffered hundreds of thousands in damage. But the loss to overall national economic productivity was even higher.
There is a strong tradition of protest in this country, often expressed through the more subversive elements of our Carnival, as well as legally protected rights enshrined in our Constitution. But such rights are not absolute. Protests are regulated and permission must be sought from the police.
The problem in this instance (and in 2020), though, is what was being protested about is precisely that: the police.
Despite glaringly obvious failings in police operational standards resulting in continued use of disproportionate force on civilians, and despite agencies such as the Police Complaints Authority making damning findings, these incidents keep happening regularly.
“We don’t see a next way,” said Sea Lots resident Elijah Mitchell in a Newsday report on the protests.
Back in 2020, the Prime Minister’s approach to protests – whether political or not – was measured.
“We’ve heard you and are ready to take action,” Dr Rowley said then, as he announced a committee to investigate the causes of disquiet in these economically-depressed communities.
However, last week, Dr Rowley saw things differently. He suggested all police shootings could be avoided either through better training for the police or better parenting of those confronted by the police. The truth is, it must be a matter of both.
Yet, when it comes to police standards, that is a matter for which the State has direct responsibility, not parents. It matters not the quality of parenting of a suspect, the police have a duty of care towards all citizens.
This is the point protesters have been trying to make for years now. If they are paid, they continue to be paid in grief.
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