CoP: What if it were Floyd?

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith -
Police Commissioner Gary Griffith -

Imagine if TT police officers were to hold down an unarmed person and put a knee on his or her neck, resulting in death.

Would anyone in this country think it would be fair to allow them to work until they have their day in court?

This was the question posed by commissioner of police Gary Griffith, while responding to questions on his move to fire six police officers who are awaiting trial for the 2011 murders of Abigail Johnson, Alana Duncan and Kerron “Fingers” Eccles.

Johnson, Duncan and Eccles were killed in an encounter with police at the corner of Poui and Gunnes Trace in Barrackpore.

Speaking at the launch of the Firearm and Toolmark Examination Training Programme at the Police Barracks in St James, the commissioner likened the three deaths to the murder of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis.

A police officer, while subduing Floyd for allegedly prresenting a counterfeit banknote, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck while waiting for assistance from other police officers.

The act was captured on video and shared via social media. Despite pleas from Floyd and witnesses for the police officer to move his knee, he continued pressing on Floyd’s neck for the entirety of a nine-minute video.

The officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with murder and he and three other officers were fired.

In TT, the officers involved in the murders of Johnson, Duncan and Eccles were suspended on half pay. One of the officers in question, PC Safraz Juman, who has been suspended since 2017, is contesting the CoP's move to dismiss him in the courts.

In a media briefing on May 18, Griffith said $50 million is spent annually on some 300 suspended officers.

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