Isn't 'Excessive Force' a Relative Term_ 7 Hours 10 Minutes After

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Story Created: Feb 18, 2011 at 12:39 AM ECT

(Story Updated: Feb 18, 2011 at 12:39 AM ECT )

Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs has come under heat recently for comments concerning the use

of excessive force in resisting criminal attacks.

Much of the criticism against him has stemmed from emotive reactions and from the hopelessness

and helplessness which has gripped the nation in the fight against crime.

However, Mr Gibbs has done no more than to state the legal position as it applies in Trinidad and

Tobago.

Any criticism against him on this basis therefore is not only unfounded but also unresearched.

What his comments have done, however, is to bring the debate concerning this matter back into the

public domain.

Recent events of retribution have the population cheering; perhaps it is time for the authorities to

revisit the issue and educate the public on the matter.

Surely if one's toe is stepped on in a Carnival fete, an appropriate response would not be to kill the

perpetrator and so it is from this perspective that reasonable force and reasonable response must be

viewed.

If one's life, security and family are under serious threat of personal violence, then that is another

matter that justifies reasonable response. As to the running down of a bandit and running him over with

a vehicle, this scenario is fraught with difficulties since the driver assumes the role of judge, jury and

executioner.

The need for justice must not give way to false judgment since no one can ask any questions of the

perpetrator after the deed is done.

If the bandit is guilty, then by all means I have no difficulty with the death penalty, but I fear that

vigilante justice may open up a veritable can of mayhem.

Has the time come for the authorities to review the legal position?

Surely!

Should one be allowed to kill or seriously wound a person who illegally and unlawfully enters one'spremises?

Should firearms be more readily available?

Whfav

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Comments (8)

Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity

9 hours ago

WHO DONT HEAR HAVE TO FEEL,those two COCKROACHES got

exactly what they deserved and not one second too late

9 hours ago

I agree with you writer Mr. Gibbs did state the legal side of this

story. The question is does a man have the right after the crime havebeen committed, to run or drive down the bandit running him over

with his car? This cannot be, and Mr. Ali, though i sympathize with

him, yet i cannot condone his actions. The laws needs revision

otherwise what we will have is men and women going - seeking the

perpetrators of crimes and delivering their brand of justice, a la trini

style.

1 reply active 4 hours ago

4 hours ago

If the bandit just chopped one of my family members and beat

them then bet your bottom dollar I would not be in a state of mind

to be philosophising about whether or not I should let the law take

its course. I would be in such a rage that I would seek out and do

serious harm to these vermin who just committed acts of violence

against me and my family. Could I live with myself knowing that

these two vermin had escaped to return again to my family at

their convenience because it was so easy the first time?

Order cannot be restored in this country until the police start doing

their jobs. As long as that does not happen people are going to be

forced to do it for them.

8 hours ago

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All these issues and more have been brought to the fore and require full public consultation and candid

discussion.

Imran S Khan

via e-mail


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Comments by

if u dont want to institute the death penalty in the courts, then it will

be instituted on the streets.

citizens hav a right to swift and accessible justice, and the current

system is not giving them that. all we are seeing is spillover justice.

59 minutes ago

We are arriving at a period in our "CIVILITY, that a citizen, when

pushed, will regress into his BRUTISH NATURE, because he or she

has looked at the power and arrogance of the criminal class,

together with the failure of those charge to Protect and Serve and

ajudicate. and if your loved ones are brutalized, by thugs, my friends,

the majoity of men with cajones, will not listen to lectures of civil

probity., it is a universal axiom, to protect your family.War is not

nice,even when we decide on the rules.Should the "law as

constituted subject citizens to be lambs fit for Slaughter, or to be an"

Ass" .

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Isn't 'Excessive Force' a Relative Term_ 7 Hours 10 Minutes After