OVER 30 years ago, Perry Samuel felt triggered by the events of the July 27, 1990 coup, as he sat in work at Lujo's in La Pique Plaza, San Fernando. Insurgents from the Jamaat al Muslimeen had stormed the Red House, Trinidad and Tobago Television and Radio Trinidad and held the government under siege for six days.
Samuel told Sunday Newsday he's always stood against violence of all kind, so he joined the TTPS and subsequently migrated to Canada to work at Peel Regional Police Service.
“I went to one of those secondary schools that really pushed students into civil service. So many of us went to police, fire, prisons, teaching. After secondary school I didn't think I was police material because back then it was more about brawn than anything else. You had to be a certain height, build. I always thought I was too short and skinny, so although I wanted to pursue it, I didn't because of that perception.”
For a few years, he sidelined the idea.
It took the tragedy and lingering effects of 1990 to plant a seed.
“When I saw what happened in my country, I felt so angry, so powerless.
"I hated that feeling. I wanted to do something to help. The destruction, loss of lives and the mayhem caused me to pursue policing at all cost. A couple years after the attempted coup, I joined the special reserve police.
“The service went around the country on a recruitment drive and trained hundreds of people on weekends. We were never given uniforms, sworn in or deployed. From there I applied for regular police starting in ‘94. I got to the last stage, but was cut.”
Following two unsuccessful attempts, Samuel almost gave up.
“I met one of my old instructors one night in St James. He persuaded me to go out for the recruitment drive the following morning. I'm glad he did, because the third time was the charm. I enlisted and passed out in 1996, at the age of 25.”
He said he served with pride in the TTPS from July 1996-2002.
As a child Samuel’s imagination was always filled with fantasies about places he often read about. So when he visited Toronto and learnt of the opportunities in the protective service there through other TT nationals employed at the Toronto Police Service, without a clear plan, he packed up and migrated in 2001.
[caption id="attachment_1006390" align="alignnone" width="1016"] Scenes from the destruction caused during the 1990 attempted coup. -[/caption]
Looking back, 27 years later, he has no regrets. “It is what I was born to do. If I could go back, even knowing what I know about the state of policing today, I wouldn't want to do anything else.
Samuel, 52, now serves at the Peel Regional Police Service in the Recruiting Bureau.
Every time he sees an application from someone from TT, it takes him back to the emotions an uncertainty he had at the beginning of his journey.
“I tell every applicant that I hire that police officers serve the public and have authority because they, the public, allows us to. I
