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We also asked Commissioner Whylie to comment on all that happened at the House of Representatives two weeks ago with Julius Espat. He said it was regrettable, but also unavoidable:…

Reporter
"Do you believe that the police acted as it should have? Was there force that shouldn't have been used? Optically it looks bad."

Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"Well optically it looks bad but of course you must understand that the police operates on the instructions of the speaker and whilst I believe that you police excercised great restraint in terms of not having to resort to force it was obvious that force was required because the member refuse to comply with the speaker's instructions or refuse to comply with the police directive in terms of several officers having speaking to him. I think that on both sides perhaps a little bit more dialogue or rational could have been used."

Jules Vasquez
"When the police officers started to push the leader of the opposition John Briceno once they had gotten Mr. Espat outside the physical chamber and they were in what would be called I guess the foyer of the chamber or anteroom and you know Mr. Briceno told them he's outside stop and then they started to push Mr. Briceno and created quite a scene there as well. In your opinion did those officers act in the soundest judgement or were they emotional and too riled up?"

Allen Whylie - Commissioner of Police
"Well as I said hindsight is always a good thing. I think the issue was whether or not they were considered out of the house and that I think we are seeking clarification from the speaker's office because our view is that the house is the house so you out of the house by being downstairs. Their position was that they were out of the house because they were in the foyer; so there was a lot of pushing back and forth, police officers were pushed throughout that day also and so I don't want to single out one incident to say oh the leader of the opposition was pushed or this was pushed because there was pushing on both sides."