An attorney and a former senior police officer are dismissing claims that the proposed stand-your-ground legislation may encourage one race of people to harm another. They are also advising citizens that if they do not have a legal firearm, a cutlass, hot oil, or a cricket bat can also be used as a means to defend themselves and their families.
Speaking after a public consultation on the issue at the Three Roads Community Centre in Freeport on Tuesday evening, attorney Nyree Alfonso said claims about race were a “red herring” introduced by opponents of the bill.
She called on citizens to focus on the protection being offered and not on racial issues.
“There is no issue of one race getting firearms to kill another race. As I have said, I have identified two races: the law-abiding and the bandits, and what we should be focusing on is protecting the law-abiding and putting the bandits where they belong, which is in jail and other places if that is necessary,” she said.
Alfonso, who is a director of a gun dealership owned by her husband, Towfeek Ali, also criticised politicians, accusing some of them of playing the “race card” when it comes to crime.
“Crime does not have a party card, crime does not have a race,” she said.
She stopped short of saying who these politicians were.
During her presentation, Alfonso emphasised the importance of extending the curtilage—the fenced-in area around a home—to include the property’s entrance, arguing that many victims are attacked at the point of entry. She cited the 2006 kidnapping of her then-neighbour, Vindra Naipaul-Coolman, as a tragic example.
Naipaul-Coolman was snatched on December 19, 2006, in the driveway of her Lange Park, Chaguanas, home as she made her way home from work. She was the chief executive officer of the Xtra Foods Supermarket.
Alfonso said the proposed legislation would empower homeowners in defending their property, stating that a firearm is not the only means of protection.
“People ask about a FUL. A cutlass is a weapon, a knife is a weapon, a baseball bat—well, in this country, a cricket bat—a broomstick, some hot oil, I don’t know. All of those are weapons. If you use any of those things, inclusive of a firearm, to defend yourself in your own home, this legislation seeks to create an offence of home invasion firstly,” Alfonso stressed, adding that those who act in self-defence should not be treated as criminals.
Also speaking was retired senior superintendent Johnny Abraham, who encouraged homeowners to keep a sharpened cutlass for home defence.
“In the night, make sure who doh have a firearm here, sharpen yuh lil poiya (cutlass) and put it one side. Ah telling yuh, you wouldn’t like somebody to come and rape your daughter and yuh can’t do nothing. Sharpen it and put it one side.”
Reflecting on his 40-year policing career, Abraham described the trauma suffered by victims of home invasions.
“Home invasions are on the increase, and it’s not only about people, it’s about an entire village. When you have a victim in a village, the entire village suffers because the neighbours are fearful about leaving their homes. The family that was robbed are fearful of going back in that house after 6 p.m. I can tell you that is not a nice experience,” he said.
Abraham, who noted he had become numb to death during his career, revealed he once cried over his failure to apprehend those responsible for the murder of a four-year-old child in Arouca—killed by intruders who pumped nine bullets into the infant during a home invasion.
He, too, chided critics of the stand-your-ground proposal for turning the issue of self-defence into a racial one.
“Another thing I hearing on the radio station is that ‘we people’ going and get kill. Who is ‘we people’? You go into somebody’s house and you masked, yuh come to do the robbery, should the victim ask the perpetrators, ‘take off yuh mask, let me see what race yuh is before I open fire on you’?”
