Mixed reactions among residents to Maloney Buildings lockdown

Res­i­dents of the Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment have ex­pressed mixed re­ac­tions to the lock­down of their area, with some wel­com­ing the ef­forts while oth­ers com­plained of ha­rass­ment by sol­diers, re­stric­tions on their free­dom of move­ment and un­cer­tain­ty over how long the mea­sures will re­main in place.

The hous­ing de­vel­op­ment, lo­cat­ed in the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM)-held Trinci­ty/Mal­oney con­stituen­cy, be­came the first area to be de­clared a closed area un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, 2026 on Tues­day.

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Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, some res­i­dents ad­mit­ted to want­i­ng to see a re­turn of law and or­der to the area, but with a 9 pm to 5 am cur­few in ef­fect, they said it would ham­per their earn­ing ca­pac­i­ty and in­fringe on their per­son­al free­dom to en­ter and ex­it the area as they were ac­cus­tomed to.