Orville Taylor | Do it right always

Lest we forget. 

Our entire political framework; two political parties entrenched in Parliament are labour parties, established on the back or workers’ organisations.

Since 1944, governments elected by the people, ostensibly the working class have passed legislation for the protection of all.

Among those laws a slew of labour statues, the majority of which were passed during the 1970s.

 A framework based on a fundamental set of rights, later amplified in 2011, as a charter of rights in our Constitution, lay the groundwork and pretty much the operational infrastructure for our entire system of governance, including the way in which we dispense justice.

Deeply enshrined in our rights under the Constitution as well as in the other legislation, is not simply an ability to benefit from our entitlements. 

Just as important in defending our rights, must be exercising those rights rightly.

 A conversation with attorney at law Jeffrey Mordecai in 1985, and a year of labour law education at the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies strongly solidified my understanding of the indispensability of people doing the right thing in the proper way.

 Somewhere around 2013 or so, legendary lawyer, politician and media personality Ronnie Thwaites had a small caucus with responsible media personalities and other interested parties, and expressed grave discomfort with the fact that the majority of disciplinary matters in the education sector, some 80 per cent, were overturned on appeal. More worrisome however, as that those appeals succeeded because the well established procedures were simply not followed or wilfully breached,

Though not directly related, two events took place over the past week, which sharply brought into focus, the importance of following rules, especially regarding those who have control over the destinies of others.

 A woman was killed by the police while she was in her motor vehicle and the one thing that is irrefutable, is that her presumed dead body was thrown in the back of a police service vehicle in a fashion which simply did not look good. I have a very clear understanding as to how a human body may be lifted and placed in a transport. Second, to the best of my knowledge, police officers are not certified medical practitioners by training, although they certainly can make a cursory determination as to whether or not an individual has died. Still, only a doctor has legal authority or capacity to make such determination.

Indeed, there have been many occasions when individuals with no obvious sign of life, made a full recovery after been given the necessary medical attention.

This is an important point, which should never leave the minds of police officers on the ground, even if they feel influenced or empowered by an interpretation from others, weather senior police officers or elected officials.

Where a member of the armed forces; the military, the correctional services, or the Constabulary has to use deadly force threat, as determined by the common law and the use of deadly force policy, he has an obligation which the average citizen does not have.

 A private citizen with a firearm has no responsibility whatever to save the life of the person who was attempting to kill him or anyone else. His only requirement is that he use proportional force which, must end at that point where the threat no longer exists.

Thus, if an attacker rushes you with machete or even if he is unarmed, but is advancing towards you, with what would look like an attempt to take your firearm from you, then without question, he has attempted suicide. His unfortunate death would be justifiable homicide.

 Presumably, if after being wounded by the person defending himself or others, the aggressor is incapacitated and no longer a threat, then the defending person has no legal liability to ensure that person's safety. In fact, he may then call the police or others. But he does not have to touch him again. Of course, given that most of us say that we believe in Jesus and are God loving and fearing, the Christian thing to do after nullifying the threat, is the try as much as possible to not only keep the threat at bay, by securing perhaps the limbs of the person, but render any kind of assistance to prevent him from dying. That is God’s law, not man’s. 

Nevertheless, if the firearm holder gets overly excited and shoots the immobilised attacker, while he is incapacitated and defenceless, then it could be murder especially, if the first shot was debilitating but not fatal. For the record, this use of deadly force guideline is exactly the same for police officers and other legally armed representatives of the state.

Use of force rules are rules and no one is exempt from following them. Investigations in the specifics of this noisome case are ongoing. So, let us allow the process to be concluded.

On a much lighter note, some of my well thinking friends believe that the principles of natural justice, underlined by the Labour Relations Code and decisions of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal itself can be harsh and burdensome for small employers. Of course this is true. However, these protestations regarding the procedural rules, should never ever come from attorneys, whose very fabric of their existence, is this fundamental principle of the pre-eminence of rules and procedures over substance. After all, no one exempts a small entrepreneur or employer, from any obligation under our tax laws.

Doing it rightly is the only way.  Expedience is never an excuse.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com