00:00Speaking on the morning edition, former police commissioner Gary Griffith questions the decision to deploy heavily armed officers to manage
00:08demonstrators, arguing that the response appeared excessive.
00:12He also challenges the reasoning behind the arrests, saying the classification of these female protesters as threats to national security
00:21raises serious concerns and suggests that the authorities needed to read the room and respond with greater flexibility.
00:29Read the room. In a situation you see a handful of unarmed people, persons who are social activists, mostly women.
00:35You will bring the riot police. And all that you're doing is just trying to show this type of aggression
00:40that is not necessary. There was no need to abort in the riot police because there was no riot. There
00:45was nothing pending. You're speaking about a handful of persons unarmed. But this, again, this is not to knock Rivero,
00:52but this is what happens when a police service commission selects a commissioner who is middle management.
00:57Griffith further questions the explanation provided by the TTPS surrounding the arrest of Kaya Seeley.
01:05Why is it that she was arrested under the SOE where people are being arrested for anything else? Why was
01:09she allowed to travel? The police officers do not know where she is. No gun power residue was tested on
01:15her hand. No fingerprint testing was done. Where the shot was fired, it was, it seems that it was more
01:22consistent with someone crouching rather than someone firing.
01:25He tells the morning edition it is the first time in the country's history that the public has called for
01:31the resignation of a police commissioner.
01:34Griffith also weighs in on the prime minister's response to the demonstrators.
01:39She made a statement to defend the police in this matter. And that is her right. Had I been with
01:43her, had I been by her side, and she wouldn't have a junior middle management minister, junior middle management from
01:49the police being a minister now, I would have advised her, prime minister, this is not a time for you
01:53to get involved on thick side.
01:55This is a time for you to be very impartial and ask everyone to calm down. We need to exhale,
02:00and we need to have some degree of communication and dialogue rather than Muslim people. That's what I would have
02:06done.
02:07Nicole M. Romani, TV6 News.
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