The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has sought to jus­ti­fy its po­lar­is­ing de­ci­sion to charge so­cial ac­tivist Alyssa Phillip and her moth­er Camille Cares­quero af­ter they par­tic­i­pat­ed in Labour Day cel­e­bra­tions in Fyz­abad on Fri­day.

In an un­char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly lengthy press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the TTPS an­nounced that the moth­er and daugh­ter had been slapped with three charges each and ex­plained the ra­tio­nale for their pros­e­cu­tion.

The re­lease stat­ed that Phillip had been charged with be­ing the leader of a march and fail­ing to call on such a march to dis­perse, dis­or­der­ly be­hav­iour, and re­sist­ing ar­rest. Cas­es­quero was charged with be­ing present at a march and fail­ing to dis­perse, ob­struct­ing a po­lice of­fi­cer, and re­sist­ing ar­rest.