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Friday 24 June 2011

Whose Side Are You On?

I've been following a story in the Daily MailI've also read about what one of our politicians has to say about prison sentences for criminals and burglars in particular.  If you defend yourself from a burglar, what would be considered 'reasonable' force?  Give a burglar a little smack and you'd probably end up maimed or dead when they use a criminal's experience of violence against you.  So, the person in the story in the Daily Mail has been arrested and remains in police custody because a burglar died when a householder was defending himself, his family and his possessions from a gang of three balaclava wearing criminals.  And to add insult to injury, the dead burglar was out on bail - for burglary.

I am beginning to question who the law is protecting here.  Or should I say, I've been questioning for some time who the law is protecting.  Do our police have some sort of motto, like 'protect and serve'?  Or maybe I'm being hard on the police and should blame the 'system' that allows a burglar to be free in society when he is already awaiting, I presume, a trial for an 'alleged' previous burglary.

I feel just as incensed when I read about false allegations made by vandals and hooligans who are making lives miserable for ordinary people in a community when they try to defend their property or their right to a peaceful life.  Or when a business owner marches a thief to the police station and then gets arrested for daring to do it.

You can bet that if I was to drop a bit of litter I'd get pounced on and fined.  Or if I put the wrong thing into the wrong wheelie bin, or if someone is smoking in their works van, or makes some remark that is these days considered politically incorrect, the powers that be will deal with them promptly.

I get depressed and disillusioned at the way the law works these day.  And at the way criminals, vandals and hooligans get away with ruining life for everyone else.  Yes, kids have always got up to tricks, but when remonstrated with they would run away, not rush in and beat someone senseless.


1 comment:

Peggy said...

Hi Ann, You have put into words a lot of what I have been feeling for a number of years now. Prisoners out on bail or like here they spend one night in jail and are left out because of over crowding.The Prison Governer seems to be able to decide how long they serve, not the judges who passed sentence in the first place.
I think it all stems down to the cost of keeping prisoners in jail.