There is no need to make any new laws as it relates to the issue of home invasions.
This from National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, as he dismissed calls by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for new legislation like stand-your-ground to be enacted to deal with the disturbing trend.
Hinds said the laws currently on T&T’s books deal adequately with an individual’s ability to protect themselves and their property.
“We have laws that deal with the question of self-defence, where persons are expected to use reasonable force in all circumstances,” Hinds said following a luncheon hosted by the Rotary Club of Port-of-Spain yesterday. (See page 7)
“That is the principle that guides us. We have seen the experience of others and as we understand it, the laws and the philosophy that we practice in terms of self-defence are quite enough for us to respond, because there are many home invasions where the occupants of the house got the better hand of the intruders. There are some cases where intruders have been killed in the bedroom of the occupant and the owner of the house and those persons were not prosecuted.”
“There’s something known as justifiable homicide, there’s something known as self-defence, and the current laws and the principles on which they are set are, in our view for the time being, quite adequate to deal with those issues. As for law enforcement, we are trying, and the police service that is, to get …, well, you saw their reaction to these home invasions in recent times.”
He added, “In every single case within recent times, the police were able to intercept the criminals, moving away from the scene and in some cases in their encounters with them, unfortunately, persons would have died but the police are now moving based on the plans and the strategies that they are implementing, some of which I learned up to yesterday, is to go further upstream to see whether they could prevent it from happening in the first place and this is why they are looking at prolific and priority offenders, and they are targeting them long before they get a chance to come out here to hurt you or me.”