Madonna King: Would you convict a homeowner who used violence or lethal force to defend their home?

How would you, as a juror, judge a frightened parent who killed a 13-year-old who had entered their home illegally in the dead of night? New Sunday Mail columnist Madonna King asks. VOTE NOW

New Sunday Mail columnist Madonna King. Picture: David Clark

What would happen if you woke to an intruder in your bedroom?

Would you negotiate? Or would you grab the nearest weapon - a lamp or even a knife - and think only of protecting your children?

Recently, my husband and children holidayed away and I stayed, alone, in the house we’ve called home for two decades.

And my nightly routine added evidence to the fear now enveloping our suburbs, and the unenviable challenge Premier David Crisafulli faces.

With the doors locked, I bedded down to catch up on the day’s local events, via Facebook, before nodding off.

Sleep proved tricky. I’d missed the break-in a few houses to the right, earlier that week. And the knife-wielding teens on another street on another night. And the handful of other break-ins, too.

Thank God Labor got the boot, one Facebook user opined. What has the LNP done, someone else chimed in. What’s this Castle’s Law the Katter Party is talking about?

That discussion, illustrated by the latest real-time CCTV footage, is on social media loops north and south of the Brisbane river, in Townsville in the north, and the country towns where many of us were schooled.

In some suburbs, security patrols have been employed. In others, there’s been calls for school dads with a few cricket bats to band together. In many, there’s a call to arms: let’s catch these kids, and teach them a lesson.

A group of men attempted to break into a Camp Hill home in Brisbane earlier this week.

That comment, repeated over and over, is a serious and salient warning of what we will almost definitely face this year.

In a home, somewhere, a frightened homeowner will kill or hurt a machete-carrying teen, in the dead of night.

Be honest. What would we think if former Wallabies star Toutai Kefu had grabbed a knife or sickle to protect his family, and come across the teens who carried the same?

Or if the young Brisbane mother had used a knife at 2am recently, when she heard teen voices climbing the stairs, towards her toddlers’ room?

What happens when an intended victim kills a 15-year-old intruder?

Luigi Nicholas Mangione arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York in December. Picture: Charly Triballeau/ AFP

The recent murder of Brian Thompson, who ran America’s biggest health insurance company, provides a clue. His alleged killer Luigi Mangione became a folk hero overnight, and a failed health system was put on trial for its contemptuous treatment of people.

Mangione tapped into a countrywide fear and frustration, and delivered a new-found commitment to reform health insurance.

That’s wrong. Yet it might deliver the right outcome.

So why would it be different here, if a father-of-three puts his family before the life of a teen, who might have had a dreadful upbringing, but thinks it’s his right to steal entry into his home, under the cover of darkness?

Authorities tell us we are protected and talk about ‘reasonable’ force and ‘proportionality’.

But how we act in a situation often differs to how we think we might act.

I once confronted an intruder in my home, and remember trying to scream. My voice disappeared. That’s how I know I could not reason with a home-invader.

Katter’s Australian Party tried to introduce Castle Law last year, backed by a 40,000-strong petition by Queenslanders.

That law protects those who use force against an intruder, and is similar to those in other countries, including the US, where it is called by various names, including the make-my-day law (made famous by Clint Eastwood’s character Dirty Harry in the 1983 film Sudden Impact).

If the LNP refuses to pick up that policy, KAP’s Nick Dametto says he will reintroduce the bill. And he speaks for many when he says if confronted by an intruder: “I’d do whatever I needed to do to protect myself, my property and my loved ones’’.

Katter’s Australia Party’s Nick Dametto. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Russell Field, the new LNP MP for Capalaba, lost his son, his son’s pregnant fiance Kate and his grandchild at the hands of a drunk young criminal in a stolen car; a tragedy that escalated and focused the youth crime debate.

His view is different. The law, he says, protects all people and we should not take it into our own hands. It will take time to turn the juvenile crime tide.

In the meantime, our worlds are reducing. Fear of crime among the elderly, and among their children and grandchildren that constrains our lives might even trump localised crime waves.

So how would you, as a juror, judge a frightened parent who killed a 13-year-old who had entered their home illegally?

American Luigi Mangione is being labelled an alleged killer. And hailed a hero.

That creates a political pickle we need to talk about.

Originally published as Madonna King: Would you convict a homeowner who used violence or lethal force to defend their home?