A High Court judge says a commissioner of police (CoP) cannot be thin-skinned.
Justice Carol Gobin made this comment in a judgement on a case between former CoP Gary Griffith and blogger Rhoda Bharath on July 11.
The case involved a defamation claim Griffith made against Bharath for two posts she made on her Facebook page on February 3 and 4, 2021, related to the death of Andrew Morris at hospital on February 1, 2021.
Morris was one of the suspects in the kidnap and murder of Andrea Bharatt.
A clerk at the Arima Magistrates Court, Bharatt was last seen alive on January 29, 2021. Her body was found at the Heights of Aripo on February 4, 2021.
In her judgment, Gobin dismissed Griffith's claim against Bharath and ordered him to pay Bharath's costs.
On examining the evidence, Gobin did not agree that Bharath's criticisms of Griffith as CoP were "aimed at him personally nor were they intended to hurt him personally."
Referring to Section 123 of the Constitution, Gobin said this section requires a CoP to ensure the human resources of the police are used efficiently.
"The power comes with or some might say, is outweighed by, the tremendous responsibility imposed on the head for the general day-to-day safety of the population, for crime fighting and for regulating the activities and operations of all officers in the TTPS (TT Police Service)."
[caption id="attachment_1046150" align="alignnone" width="588"] Justice Carol Gobin. -[/caption]
The judge also said, "A commissioner must expect to be the target of criticism not only on spiralling and uncontrollable crime and low detection rates, but on complaints of police brutality and police killings. The buck stops with him or her. A commissioner cannot be thin-skinned. This is a democracy. People are entitled to criticise office-holders, harshly."
Gobin cited legal precedents which showed none of the publications made by Bharath could be considered defamatory of Griffith.
One was the 1990 Privy Council judgement on the case of Hector vs Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda and specific remarks made by Lord Bridge of Harwich in that judgement.
He wrote, "In a free democratic society it is almost too obvious to need stating that those who hold public office in government and who are responsible for public administration must always be open to criticism. Any attempt to stifle or fetter such criticism amount to political censorship of the most insidious and objectionable kind."
Gobin observed that a focus of Bharath's posts was the criticism of the police procedure adopted in relation to Morris's death.
The judgment included a copy of a police statement issued on February 3, 2021, outlining a sequence of events starting from Morris's arrest on February 1, 2021 and his death at the Arima Hospital later that day.
Some of those events included Morris allegedly acting violently and falling to the ground when he was arrested, refusing to see a doctor when offered the opportunity while in police custody, falling on two occasions at hospital and subseq
