ACP North-West warns revellers: Weapons mean jail

SHANE SU­PERVILLE

Se­nior Re­porter

With J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions just hours away, se­nior po­lice are once again warn­ing the pub­lic not to bring weapons in­to the cap­i­tal, as of­fi­cers will im­me­di­ate­ly ar­rest any­one found with such items.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Garvin Hen­ry, who has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the North-West Di­vi­sion, which cov­ers Port of Spain and the West­ern Di­vi­sion, told Guardian Me­dia that rev­ellers found with weapons would face ar­rest and of­fi­cers would ac­cept no ex­cus­es.

Over the years, of­fi­cers have con­fis­cat­ed a quan­ti­ty of weapons from peo­ple dis­em­bark­ing maxi taxis at City Gate in down­town Port of Spain ear­ly on Car­ni­val Mon­day, as po­lice usu­al­ly be­gin search­ing peo­ple en­ter­ing the city for J’Ou­vert at that point.

He re­mind­ed the pub­lic that of­fi­cers from var­i­ous di­vi­sions, along with tac­ti­cal sup­port units such as the In­ter-Agency Task Force and the Guard and Emer­gency Branch, will be on du­ty to deal with trou­ble­mak­ers.

“Checks will be made not on­ly on J’Ou­vert morn­ing or pre-J’Ou­vert morn­ing but through­out the Car­ni­val, check­ing peo­ple who will be in pos­ses­sion of ar­ti­cles that are not as­so­ci­at­ed with rev­el­ling.

“Per­sons in pos­ses­sion of these items, it’s like­ly they will find them­selves ar­rest­ed and com­plete­ly out of the Car­ni­val. So, there is a ze­ro-tol­er­ance stance for bring­ing these weapons in­to the city, which we be­lieve can on­ly be for one pur­pose and that is to cause harm to oth­er peo­ple.”

Hen­ry said peo­ple ar­rest­ed on Mon­day would usu­al­ly ap­pear be­fore a court on Ash Wednes­day at the ear­li­est, adding that po­lice would en­sure law and or­der is main­tained.

He al­so said the ban on the use of glass bot­tles re­mains in ef­fect.

“That no­tice has al­ready gone out, so on­ly per­sons trad­ing in al­co­hol are al­lowed to have glass bot­tles in their pos­ses­sion as they con­duct their trade, but as they ex­change mon­ey for liquor or any bev­er­age for that mat­ter must be in a re­cep­ta­cle that is not glass.”