Sunday 29 June 2008

Citizens' Rights

The recent case of the ex-soldier who made a citizen's arrest on one of the teenagers who had been systematically damaging his property and then found himself on a charge of kidnap made me think very hard about what rights the law abiding have in today's society.

In the recent case the guy had rung a 'hotline' and been kept on hold for 45 minutes! What is the point of a so called 'hotline' if it isn't manned properly? Most of us know that in this day and age the police won't confront young tearaways so a 999 call would also prove fruitless. It would appear that we're now on our own without police protection so what can we do?

The infamous case of the Norfolk farmer, Tony Martin, proved that we cannot use fire arms to defend ourselves. We are informed that we have to use only 'reasonable force' if confronted by robbers. What is reasonable force? I would hate to kill someone defending my wife and dog (she is very old and never was very brave - the dog that is) and then face some smart arse criminal lawyer trying to prove that the nine iron which I buried into the head of the intruder in the dark was 'unreasonable'. I could face a long sentence for defending my property.

The point I am trying to make is that sooner or later some quick thinking criminal type is going to realise that we homeowners in twenty first century Britain are, to all and intents and purposes, defenceless. There are an awful lot of immigrants for example, some of them East European Romanies, looking for somewhere to rest their weary heads and there are a lot pensioners sitting in valuable properties which they worked hard to buy many years ago.

If the examples of police indifference which are being ever more frequently being reported then someone, somewhere, will be the first resident to lose their home to intruders. Don't tell me that it won't happen because at the moment it is entirely feasible unless someone gets the police to do their bloody job!

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