Akash Sama­roo

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Se­nior Re­porter/Pro­duc­er

“Do not back down, show ab­solute­ly no mer­cy and at­tack with full force.”

That was the em­phat­ic ad­vice from Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day, as she re­it­er­at­ed her Gov­ern­ment’s com­mit­ment to bring stand-your-ground laws and eas­i­er ac­cess to le­gal firearms, even in the face of some pub­lic crit­i­cism.

Days af­ter At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie re­vealed that stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion will be brought to Par­lia­ment af­ter the mid-year bud­get re­view and be­fore the ses­sion is re­cessed, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion may have sim­i­lar traits to Flori­da’s frame­work.

In the US ju­ris­dic­tion, stand-your-ground laws are le­gal statutes that al­low in­di­vid­u­als to use force, in­clud­ing dead­ly force, to de­fend them­selves against per­ceived threats with­out the oblig­a­tion to re­treat.

Speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net news brief­ing at the Red House, Port-of-Spain, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she had not­ed some peo­ple have ob­ject­ed to the Gov­ern­ment’s promise to make firearms more ac­ces­si­ble to cit­i­zens who qual­i­fy.

For those peo­ple, the PM said the path is sim­ple.

“Do not ap­ply. If you’re against get­ting a firearm, you have the op­tion, it is your choice, do not ap­ply but we would pro­ceed with stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion. We will pro­ceed with giv­ing le­gal firearms, with­in a frame­work, be­cause those were mat­ters, we promised the elec­torate,” she ex­plained.

She said while in a democ­ra­cy every­one is en­ti­tled to an opin­ion, “to­day I am voic­ing mine.”

“Many vic­tims of home in­va­sions have writ­ten to me about their ex­pe­ri­ences. Most vic­tims want to de­fend their fam­i­lies but did not have the equal means to do so,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, adding it is the pri­ma­ry job of a gov­ern­ment to pro­tect its cit­i­zens, and they be­lieve this op­tion can im­prove safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty.

Putting her hands to her head, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “I ask you to just en­vis­age and imag­ine, some crim­i­nal beat­ing the life out of your hus­band or your wife, rap­ing your daugh­ter. What would you do? You will have to stand your ground and de­fend your fam­i­ly. Af­ter we pass these laws and im­ple­ment them in the com­ing months, you will have the right to de­fend your home and your fam­i­ly.”

She added that crim­i­nals have shown this coun­try no mer­cy for the last decade and more.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said when crim­i­nals come in­to the homes of cit­i­zens who are equipped with their le­gal firearm, “at­tack with full force with­in the law of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Don’t be guilt-tripped by some who do not want to de­fend them­selves. Crim­i­nals have sent thou­sands of your loved ones to the morgue.”

In an ef­fort to un­der­score the trau­ma that be­falls fam­i­lies who are vic­tims of home in­va­sions, the Prime Min­is­ter called on Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der to set the scene.

Alexan­der called on some­one close to the light switch­es in the Red House’s Press Room to, “just take the light off and let me show you some­thing.”

Il­lu­mi­nat­ed on­ly by the lights af­fixed to the me­dia’s cam­eras and the oc­ca­sion­al flash from the pho­tog­ra­phers, Alexan­der drama­tised what he called the re­al­i­ty of the vic­tims.

“Just imag­ine there is no light here and you lie down on your bed com­fort­ably at night. Your fam­i­ly is among you, your kids, and the el­der­ly.”

He then took his hand and hit the lectern hard.

“And you hear bram! And next thing you know your doors are kicked in. And then some­body roots you off of your bed, some­times by your hair or legs and say ‘lie down on the ground. Where the mon­ey? Where is the jew­ellery?’”

He con­tin­ued, “The women will be scream­ing and then some­times they look for the youngest or the old­est one. And take her away from every­body else. And you hear scream­ing. They tie you up some­times and you hear scream­ing and you can do noth­ing.

“And you hear your moth­er, wife or daugh­ter say­ing ‘don’t do me that, oh God don’t do me that please.’ And then some­times you hear a mo­ment of si­lence. And you are won­der­ing if that is the end of the per­son they took up­stairs.”

With the lights back on Alexan­der said, “When we im­ple­ment that home in­va­sion pol­i­cy and that stand-your-ground, you might be able to see them long be­fore and the re­sult should be dif­fer­ent.”

To those who are against this crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tive, Alexan­der said, “When­ev­er you op­pose things, study the con­se­quences, study what hap­pens when per­sons en­ter your home un­in­vit­ed and leave mem­bers of your fam­i­ly dead.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar was then asked if she is con­cerned that with more guns in peo­ple’s hands, this coun­try will turn in­to the “wild, wild, west.”

She re­spond­ed, “In oth­er states where we have peo­ple giv­en le­gal firearms, is it a wild, wild, west? Maybe back in the day. That is one of the con­cerns of course, but we are say­ing there will be checks and bal­ances. It will not be that you walk in and I like your face and I give you a gun. It’s not go­ing to work like that. We will have a frame­work with­in which we will have to do cer­tain types of test­ing, psy­cho­log­i­cal test­ing, and as­sess­ments. So, it’s not like walk in, sign up and take a gun.”

AG Je­re­mie con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia this week that he has tasked Alexan­der with set­ting up a com­mit­tee which will in­form the stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion. He hopes the com­mit­tee will fin­ish its work by the end of June.

Flori­da leg­is­la­tion

Flori­da’s stand-your-ground leg­is­la­tion was en­act­ed in 2005.

Flori­da’s statute ex­plic­it­ly states that a per­son who is not en­gaged in un­law­ful ac­tiv­i­ty and who is at­tacked in any place where they have a right to be, has no du­ty to re­treat and can “stand their ground” and meet force with force.

Dead­ly force can be used if a per­son rea­son­ably be­lieves it is nec­es­sary to pre­vent im­mi­nent death or great bod­i­ly harm to them­selves or an­oth­er, or to pre­vent the im­mi­nent com­mis­sion of a “forcible felony” (such as armed rob­bery, ag­gra­vat­ed as­sault, or bur­glary).

This law on­ly ap­plies if the per­son us­ing force is in a place where they have a le­gal right to be (e.g., their home, ve­hi­cle, work­place, or pub­lic space) and is not en­gaged in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

The law al­so al­lows for the use of force to pro­tect oth­ers.

The law does not pro­tect in­di­vid­u­als who ini­ti­ate the con­fronta­tion or are the ini­tial ag­gres­sors, those who were en­gaged in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty at the time of the in­ci­dent, and if ex­ces­sive force dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the threat faced is ap­plied.