Isn't 'excessive force' a relative term? | Trinidad Express... http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Isn_t__excessiv...

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Isn't 'excessive
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force' a relative
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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 Who among
favourite to
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!
View poll resu
Should one be allowed to kill or seriously wound a person who illegally and unlawfully enters one's
premises?

Should firearms be more readily available?

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Isn't 'excessive force' a relative term? | Trinidad Express... http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Isn_t__excessiv...

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 (8) Granny and her Bible
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untrue
Login or signup now to comment. Save us from noisy Soca
Chutney show
kijnuhbgvfcdxs 79p — 9 hours ago +1 Sound of shooting
WHO DONT HEAR HAVE TO FEEL,those two COCKROACHES got
The problem with housing
exactly what they deserved and not one second too late relief

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phillnoir 86p — 9 hours ago +1 Weather Fo

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 have
been 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.

Reply 1 reply — active 4 hours ago Report

Nettletea 63p — 4 hours ago +3

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.

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pplb4politics -1p — 8 hours ago +2

2 of 3 18/02/2011 14:28
Isn't 'excessive force' a relative term? | Trinidad Express... http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Isn_t__excessiv...

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.

Reply Report

telos40 81p — 59 minutes ago +1

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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