Nearly 48 hours after three activists were taken into police custody during a demonstration calling for accountability in the Kaia Sealy case, hundreds of supporters reassembled on a weekday afternoon near Port of Spain’s Forensic Science Centre in Federation Park. The gathering’s key organizers — Alyssa Phillip, who heads the protest movement, and her mother Camille Caresquero — were able to attend just hours after they were released from police detention on personal recognizance bonds.
In a sharp contrast to the confrontational clashes and arrests that marked Wednesday’s demonstration, Thursday’s assembly concluded without any conflict or detentions, even as law enforcement deployed a heavy, multi-unit presence across the surrounding area. Officers moved barricades into position shortly before 3 p.m., blocking all vehicle and pedestrian access to Barbados Road from the Long Circular Road intersection. Members of the press and general public were ordered to retreat from the area surrounding the barricades, with only Federation Park residents granted access to the restricted stretch of road. When pressed by reporters for an explanation for the sweeping access restrictions, on-site officers stated they were only following superior orders and declined to share further details.
A notable detail that drew public and press attention during the deployment was the sighting of multiple officers wearing black baseball caps emblazoned with the logo of *The Punisher*, the popular Marvel Comics antihero. When asked about the controversial insignia by reporters from the *Express*, officers offered only that it was “just a cap with a particular emblem on it” before refusing further comment. The insignia has been a source of ongoing public debate in Trinidad and Tobago for months, after Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro retained the logo on his official uniform despite widespread criticism. Guevarro has previously defended the emblem as an award he received for participation in an international law enforcement operation. Guevarro was not present at Thursday’s demonstration, but two of the service’s top commanders — Deputy Commissioner Suzette Martin and Assistant Commissioner Richard Smith — were on-site overseeing officer deployments and crowd management. The multi-unit deployment included officers from the Mounted Branch, Guard and Emergency Branch, the police Task Force, and both the Western and Port of Spain Divisions.
As crowds slowly gathered along the open stretch of Long Circular Road, demonstrators adopted a deliberate, peaceful form of protest to push back against what they describe as the silencing of public calls for justice: dozens of participants placed adhesive tape over their mouths, many hand-writing messages demanding action on the tape itself. Activist Wendell Eversley’s tape bore the word “silent”, while a second message across his chest read “justice must be served”. Another protester wrote Joshua on their gag — a reference to Joshua Samaroo, who was killed by 19 police bullets, the detail that organizers centered in the demonstration’s structure. When Phillip arrived just after 4 p.m., she wore a face mask completely covered in duct tape, with the words “cops say shhh” printed in bold red ink across the tape, a direct rebuke of recent attempts to contain protest activity.
After assembling along the western pavement of Long Circular Road, participants opened the demonstration with a community prayer led by Caresquero, before launching into 19 minutes of complete silence — one minute for each bullet fired at Samaroo. Caresquero opened the event by thanking attendees for their turnout, and offered prayers for police officers who “still had integrity in their hearts and understood the just causes of accountability and democracy”. “We pray that our silent protest, where we will be silent for 19 minutes, represents the 19 bullets that Joshua got,” she told the crowd. Throughout the silent demonstration, participants held their hands overhead in the iconic “hands up, don’t shoot” posture associated with global police accountability movements, while several demonstrators knelt on the pavement in a gesture of protest. Officers repeatedly warned attendees and reporters throughout the event to keep the pedestrian walkway clear, and even deployed a mobile detention bus to the site as a precaution.
After the 19-minute silent period concluded, Phillip led a second prayer, addressing the broader state of policing and violence in the country. “Lord, our nation is bleeding, and we need your help. Hear our cries,” she said. “Help the people to know that our voices matter, and not just our voices but our actions. Because when we cannot speak, when we are not allowed to speak, when we are prohibited from speaking, our actions matter.” She called on both the Police Service and national government to uphold their commitments to democracy and reject all forms of violence, adding: “We are hurting and bleeding as a nation. Not just from violence from some of the members of our Police Service but violence among our citizens. Lord, we rebuke violence, no matter where it comes from.”
Speaking briefly to reporters after the formal program, Caresquero emphasized that the protest was intentionally organized to comply with all police instructions while still delivering a clear demand for change. “The representation for today, in terms of coming out, is to show what happened before and what happened now—we cannot remain silent,” she said. “That is what they like. We gave them what they would like, and we followed the instructions. But freedom of speech has to go on. So we gave a silent message.” She added that organizers hoped authorities would finally acknowledge and address the widespread public concern over police accountability that drew the crowd to the site. “The people want to speak to them and the people have something to say, and we want that they listen,” she said.
One protester, Jasson Noel, pushed back against the scale of the police deployment, arguing that the large show of force amounted to tactical intimidation of peaceful demonstrators. He questioned why so many officers were reassigned to monitor the protest when the city faces ongoing violent crime challenges. “There’s always reports of robberies and home invasions and all kind of thing. Real crime with guns. But you all here. Why so many of you all here? For people who have camera and voice?” Noel asked. By approximately 5 p.m., the demonstration dispersed peacefully, with no confrontations, arrests or incidents reported by either police or organizers.