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Lolo for arming police, Tuika says no, Faoa only on special occasions

The three gubernatorial teams at last Thursday evening’s gubernatorial forum hosted by the American Samoa Bar Association.  [photo: FS]
AS Bar Assoc. gubernatorial forum asks 13 questions of each team
fili@samoanews.com

The controversial issue of whether or not to arm police officers in American Samoa, was one of the thirteen questions asked of the candidates for governor at last Thursday evening’s gubernatorial forum hosted by the American Samoa Bar Association at the Gov. H. Rex Lee Auditorium.

“Should we arm our officers? And what would your policy look like,?” were asked of the candidates for governor. All three gubernatorial teams were present during the forum which began just after 6p.m. and didn’t finish until about three hours later: Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga and Lt. Lemanu Peleti Mauga; Faoa Aitofele Sunia and Rep. Larry Sanitoa; and, Tuika Tuika and Salanoa Iuni Maeva Saveena.

LOLO’S RESPONSE

Lolo responded that times have changed and so has the level of crimes in American Samoa. “To make sure our officers are being protected, I think we support the idea that we need to arm our officers on special occasions,” he said.

He said there are cases where officers go out on raids “and they don’t have anything [to protect them] when they respond. It’s impractical and it’s unsafe. So we support the idea that we have to arm our officers.”

Of the policy to address the arming of officers, Lolo said, officers would go through training for the use of weapons and a psychological evaluation. “Many people don’t trust our officers, but we do,” he said.  “They are just like officers in the states.”

“As long as we provide the proper training, make sure they go through the proper psychological evaluation then, we can guarantee that they are safe to carry arms, to bear arms, when they perform their duties,” Lolo said.

“I don’t like to see our own officers go out unprotected, so when they respond to the call for crimes at least they know how to use arms and weapons. So we support the idea of arming our officers on special occasions,” he said.

TUIKA RESPONSE

When posed the same question, Tuika answered, “If we stop corruption we don’t need the police to be armed.” He pointed out that people are closely related on a very small island and “we don’t have the problems” such as in the US and other countries.

“We should be very careful because the people will arm themselves too,” he said and points out that in the US, people shoot at police. “[The] way our police force has been recruited, I don’t think they are ready.”

Tuika said, “We need to clean up corruption, that’s the problem. If we can clean that up, we don’t need police to have guns, they will endanger their lives and their families too,” and reiterated that he is against arming police officers.

FAOA RESPONSE

In his response, Faoa says he believes that “we are still doing okay right now” with police officers not armed. He said officers can be armed “under certain circumstances and I believe the [Police] Commissioner is authorized by law to issue firearms” on those certain circumstances.

Faoa recalled the deadly shooting of a police officer several years ago in front of the temporary High Court building in Fagatogo. (He is referring to the 2010 case in which police Lt. Lusila Brown was shot and killed by Siaumau Siaumau Jr., who is serving time in jail. Siaumau also shot at two other officers who didn’t sustain life-threatening injuries.)

“And I honestly believe, that if the officers were armed [at the time] there was going to be two people dead that day — the police officer that died and the person that shot the police officer would have been shot  by the officer who was there,” he said.

“Our set-up from the beginning, we depended on our culture and our Samoan relationship to take care of problems. We talk it out. And of course times have changed,” he said.

“I’m not saying we should arm the police because they [people are] shooting at the police. If they shoot at the police, one of the policeman die and they shoot back and then another guy dies. So would that make it right?” Fata asked.

“I like the way it is now, not arm the police but issue them firearms under certain circumstances if they’re going on raids — to protect themselves,” he reiterated.

Samoa News will report this week on other questions during the forum.