Of­fi­cers from a spe­cialised unit of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice yes­ter­day shot and killed a man who was out on bail for mur­der.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les says the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will host a pub­lic meet­ing in Tu­na­puna to­mor­row to ed­u­cate cit­i­zens about how their con­sti­tu­tion­al rights will be af­fect­ed un­der the new­ly de­clared State of Emer­gency (SoE).

Pa­tri­ot­ic Front leader Mick­ela Pan­day is warn­ing that Trinidad and To­ba­go risks weak­en­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tions if emer­gency pow­ers are re­peat­ed­ly used as the pri­ma­ry re­sponse to crime.

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s trade union move­ment is clos­ing ranks on the Gov­ern­ment’s lat­est de­c­la­ra­tion of a State of Emer­gency (SoE), warn­ing that while crime must be con­front­ed de­ci­sive­ly, emer­gency pow­ers can­not sub­sti­tute for a co­her­ent na­tion­al crime strat­e­gy nor be al­lowed to erode work­ers’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.