JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

The Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Fitzger­ald Hinds, be­lieves the dis­re­gard that crim­i­nals have for law en­force­ment lies at the heart of the re­cent at­tacks on the homes of three prison of­fi­cers.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day—one day af­ter the third at­tack this week on a prison of­fi­cer—Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al of the Prison Of­fi­cers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (POA), Lester Lo­gie, ob­served that boun­ties were placed on the heads of of­fi­cers for mere­ly do­ing their jobs.

The As­so­ci­a­tion is call­ing on the State to pro­vide greater pro­tec­tion for prison of­fi­cers.

Mean­while, the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter is en­cour­ag­ing prison of­fi­cers to re­main stead­fast in their du­ties, re­gard­less.

Min­is­ter Hinds told Guardian Me­dia the at­tacks are the crim­i­nals’ way of seek­ing to in­tim­i­date law en­force­ment.

“It is not new, and it is not strange that crim­i­nals will take on law en­force­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said. 

“Re­mem­ber that law en­force­ment in this coun­try is trained, and sup­port­ed by the law and the Con­sti­tu­tion,” the min­is­ter notes, “and equipped to deal with that on be­half of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go—in de­fence of the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. And where ap­plic­a­ble, in de­fence of it­self.”

On Wednes­day, the head of the POA con­firmed that boun­ties rang­ing from $200,000 to $350,000 had been placed on prison of­fi­cers’ lives.