Some unlikely good news on the
self-defence front this week out of NSW regarding a home
invasion:
“A home intruder has died after an altercation with a resident at a
house in Sydney’s south-west.
Around 7.30am on Sunday the 44-year-old father of the home on Westwood Court in Harrington Park awoke to the sound of his dog barking. Police say he went to investigate and challenged a male intruder in the loungeroom.
A physical struggle ensued and the intruder lost consciousness. The resident’s wife alerted neighbours and two members of the public commenced CPR on the unconscious man.
Paramedics soon arrived but were unable to revive him. The male resident was taken to Narellan Police Station but was released on Sunday evening without charge.
Detective Inspector Shane Woolbank said people are “entitled to their home” and can use reasonable force to protect themselves and their property.
He said police were unable to determine the identity of the intruder.”
No doubt the parents of said intruder will be making their pleas on national television within a few days, claiming how much of a saint the deceased is. This is a similar scenario to a gentleman who did the same thing in Frankston a couple of years ago, coming to the aid of a neighbour under attack.
Two interesting things to come out of this.
Firstly, common sense appears to have prevailed and the homeowner has been released without charge by NSW Police. Surely, no jury in the world would convict the man of defending his wife and children in his own home and putting him through two years and thousands of dollars of unnecessary stress.
Secondly, the tone from Police. This is a deviation from the
usual “just call us and wait” script
most cops will trot out. Never forget Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana from
Victoria Police telling people to just be compliant during a home invasion:
The right to self-defence is meaningless without access to the practical means. And it doesn’t help when you have dickheads from both sides of politics claiming people who suggest the Castle Doctrine are ‘racist.’ We saw exactly this from the Australian Senate last week, from Labor idiot Senator Anthony Chisholm towards Fraser Anning:
It’s really quite simple, your home is your castle. You don’t know what someone’s intentions are when they enter your premises at 2am and it’s naïve to assume the best-case scenario of them just taking your items and leaving.
Waiting for Police is also a mug’s game – you’re just putting yourself at the disadvantage of time and space for the arrival of force. That’s exactly the predicament Dean Webber found himself in when Queensland Police refused to assist him in a home invasion. Sure, call them but don’t expect them to be there in time because they won’t be.
Further, the age-old debate over what is reasonable and proportionate is indeed a balancing act – what is reasonable and proportionate is different for everyone. In all honesty, wouldn’t you want that fight to be as unfair as possible in your favour? The same force escalation principle that applies to Police should generally apply to homeowners.
The main problem as we have pointed out time and again in Australia is that the law basically prevents you from having any item, especially items designed for this scenario, for the purpose of self-defence. Firearm storage laws also make it nigh on impossible for legally owned firearms to be used for the same purpose. This already puts the public at a massive disadvantage, being forced to improvise against an assailant that has come prepared for an attack.
Put simply, the Castle Doctrine should be the default setting for when home invasions occur in Australia.
Kudos to NSW Police and let’s see if this trend continues. Perhaps NSW Police have learned their lesson after their handling of the David Dunstan incident two years ago.
Just make sure you don’t use a Zombie Knife.
“n all honesty, wouldn’t you want that fight to be as unfair as possible in your favour?” As we used to say back in my army days, if you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn’t plan your mission properly.
It is funny in this country, we tell people to prepare for bushfires and cyclones and so on, but absolutely deny them the right to prepare for defence of themselves, property and family in their own homes.
#straya
Do you prepare by practicing unarmed combat too?
No, but then I don’tt prepare to defend my home from bush fires with my bare hands either, I own a fire pump, hoses, sprinklers etc.
you know, the tools appropriate to the job and they are kept ready, just as I should be allowed to keep the tools ready to defend myself and my home from intruders.
I wouldn’t talk too soon if I were you . Call me cynical but the only reason this bloke has not been charged is because (according to media reports) the cause of death is still unknown. Assuming that the coroner confirms that it was not “a heat attack “ or “stroke” then the homeowner will be charged quicker than you can say “trust me I’m here from the government…”. I hope the homeowner has a good lawyer. Watch this space…
One of the bizarre criteria that is applied according to the story is “was the intruder on the drug ice”, this would allow you to use more force and the police are awaiting the results of toxicology screening from their laboratory to determine this. on that basis how the hell is a homeowner to reliably make that determination in time to protect themselves and their family? surely the only reasonable assumption for the homeowner to make is that an intruder is very dangerous and act accordingly.