Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has apol­o­gised for the role of po­lice of­fi­cers in pre­vent­ing Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists from prac­tis­ing their faith for over three decades.

Gue­var­ro ad­dressed the en­force­ment of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance be­tween 1917 and 1951 by po­lice of­fi­cers, as he ad­dressed Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions host­ed by the Na­tion­al Con­gress of In­cor­po­rat­ed Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Or­gan­i­sa­tions of T&T (NCOIS­BOTT) at its head­quar­ters in Bal­main, Cou­va, yes­ter­day.

“It is a sober­ing re­minder that in our own na­tion­al sto­ry, the law was once used to si­lence cul­ture, iden­ti­ty and spir­i­tu­al ex­pres­sion. That is what they used the law for,” Gue­var­ro said in ref­er­ence to the 1917 Shouter Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance.