Ac­tivist Wen­dell Ever­s­ley says he is con­cerned that Trinidad and To­ba­go is head­ing to­wards be­com­ing a po­lice state, fol­low­ing new State of Emer­gency (SoE) reg­u­la­tions that pro­hib­it pub­lic protests with­in 500 me­tres of 15 des­ig­nat­ed lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing the Par­lia­ment.

Speak­ing dur­ing an in­ter­view on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew pro­gramme yes­ter­day, Ever­s­ley de­scribed the re­stric­tions as an at­tack on democ­ra­cy and free­dom of ex­pres­sion, warn­ing that cit­i­zens’ rights were be­ing erod­ed.

“What I am fright­ened about is if Trinidad and To­ba­go is now be­com­ing a po­lice state and the in­sti­tu­tion must be in­de­pen­dent,” he said.