(Trinidad Guardian) – Shots were fired and tear gas thrown as residents and police clashed at Picton Road, Laventille, on Tuesday.
The mid-afternoon drama was caused by the detention of an 18-year-old resident, Trevlon Harry, by members of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) hours earlier.
Harry managed to escape from the Laventille hills and was interviewed by the media, still wearing handcuffs on his wrists. He told CNC3 that when he was taken to an area called Block 8, the police called out some men who beat him.
Harry said kept on asking him for a gun. But he said he told them that it was in a house close by in order to get away. He said hen he got an opportunity he ran away in handcuffs.
The heat was on when about 300 residents engaged in a stand-off with the heavily-armed police and soldiers at the corner of Dan Kelly Village and Picton Road, demanding answers. Several parts of Picton Road, leading to Pump Trace, were blocked with burning tyres, dust bins and debris.
One of the officers of the unit had to be rescued when residents spotted him in the area. All it took was for one man to shout, “All you, look the officer over there, the one who kidnap the youth-man!” Men, women, children and the elderly left their stand-off position near the tanks, and ran towards the officer. With chants of “Allah-U-Ackbar,” or “God is great,” the villagers called upon the officer to say what happened to Harry.
“What you do with the boy? Where the youth man you and you team kidnap this morning?” asked a resident. “He need to give us some answers now before we beat the living out of him,” said another villager, as he shoved his hand in the officer’s face. Outnumbered by the irate villagers, the officer was advised by a senior officer to leave the area, before things got out of control. As the officer entered a vehicle to make his retreat, residents hurled abuses at him.
“Why you running for? Don’t run, barber boy, don’t run,” some of them chanted. “Imagine, little children playing and all you just firing shots and tear gas all because of a peaceful protest. “Well all you shoot now! All you can’t shoot?” shouted a man as three heavily-armed officers formed a barricade near the tank. The officers later made a hasty retreat after the crowd grew and began behaving violently.
“They kidnap a youth-man here this morning, take him from here in Picton …and carried him over in Block Eight and have men beating him, bussing up he head. “We block the road because we want to know where the youth man gone, said one villager, who did not wish to be identified.
“They (police) pull out tear gas and flash grenades and throw it in the crowds. They said all of us is criminals and gunmen, so they don’t care. But we don’t want no war with them. But if is war they want then is war they go get.” A man who only identified himself as Shabbaz denounced the alleged activities of the police. “As an elder in this community, I think what the police did is unjust. That is not the right way—for the police to be kidnapping people—because when they do that, what are they leaving for us to do?
“We just simply have no faith and trust in the police,” he said. He added, “As long as we don’t get any satisfaction, we are going to continue protesting and once they come around here and advantage us, we going to retaliate, because oppression is worst than slaughter.” Ena Williams, 89, said officers fired a tear gas canister at her.
One man was arrested for using obscene language.
