General Forum - Stabbing burglars `will be legal` - Page 1

I cant see that they will make it "legal" but I am sure they will look at the circumstances and see if it was "reasonable force" ie stabbing/hitting with whatever is about was the only option left to the victim.

As for going into anyone's house i would not recommend that at all as we all have mobiles and a quick 999 would be much better. If you did feel the need to go wandering in then its just a case of shouting very loud who you are as you go in to make the owner/burglar aware that you know who it is coming in. The owner will be thankfull and more often than not a burglar will leg it out the opposite side of the house.

The Jackal

It will be legal as long as you don't kill them

More interesting is will it be legal to repeatedly hit them about the head with a baseball bat and then kick them down the stairs?

Think frome what I#ve read elsewhere this is another line being taken out of context.
They aren't saying "it will be legal" but instead that it will "NOT be illegal"

Not just a play on words but in one example, an Female Pensioner finds a teenage scheittebag raiding her flat/house. He has obviously more strength and possibly a weapon. The only thing to hand for the old lady is a kitchen knife which she picks up to defend both herself and her property. She stabs this piece of human filth and currently would be arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
In the new proposals she wouldn't as she has used reasonable force to protect herself and her belongings/property.

Another example is that someone catches a burglar then kicks the utter living scheitte out of them. Possibly enlisting help from friends or family, but clearly in a superior position to the burglar, they would still be liable to arrest for assault.

It's that same little word used regularly in Scottish Law that will make the difference, REASONABLE.

If a thief is running away and you stab him in the back then you're heading for the cubes.... if he's coming at you with a knife and you smash his skull with a baseball bat in self-defence then I believe you won't.

And my views on tackling burglars are already well known....

Jimbo : oÞ

"There's that word again... is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull in the future?"

Its a difficult one, considering past incidents like that Sussex? farmer getting a sentence because he shot a 'gipsy scum' dead when he was trying to get in his house, on repeated occasions.

Also in America, cannot remember the state, a lost UK tourist went to ask a USA household directions, and the owner shot him dead at the door, thinking he was a burgular.

OK, these are extremes, but I think you are not knowing what you are going to do when you confront a burgular, and then the adrenalin cuts in for fight or run.

I would say the jury should know all the facts, and take that into account how much force the owner has used in safeguarding his property. Plus the owners rights should have a priority over any burgular rights, which is not the case at present.

Quote:
bandicoot says...
farmer getting a sentence because he shot a 'gipsy scum' dead when he was trying to get in his houseAre you sure you don't mean the farmer with an illegal firearm who shot a burglar in the back that was running away from the house?


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Are you sure you don't mean the farmer with an illegal firearm who shot a burglar in the back that was running away from the house?

on that story, i spoke to a copper i knew and he said that the farmers house was actually a saw type booby trap, litterally moats in the living room covered by carpets u would fall into if u didnt know it was there and steps removed on the way upstairs, the farmer had some mental issues and that was taken into account when they judged him

Think I agree with RJS on this one, defending yourself is one thing but I think in most cases it is better to grab your kids and lock yourseles in the bathroom and phone the police than to be attacking your potential attackers?

Also, lets say the argument of "the kitchen knife was the first thing to hand" is acceptable, how many people will suddenly accidentally leave a kitchen knife or some other potentially deadly weapon near the bed so that itis "to hand" (I used to know someone who slept with a machete next to the bed "just in case").

Its a tricky one, because we should be allowed to defend ourselves and our stuff, but the way this is being reported and coming across reminds me of vigilantes and mobs with flaming torches and pitchforks after burgulars

I have to say I come down on the side of the frightened householder.  At the moment, self-defence is no defence in the eyes of the law and the police are required to treat a householder defending themselves as assaulting the burglar.  Rightly or wrongly, the public perceives the law as defending the rights of the burglar to pillage and kill, and the householder as having to grin and bear it.

At the risk of being labelled a tinfoil-helmet-wearer, I think the blame for all this falls on the media, whipping up a sense of paranoia that anyone breaking into our homes is intent on doing us harm.  I would assume that anybody breaking into my home and encountering me would either kill or wound me to avoid being apprehended, so I would protect myself and my loved ones.  If that required lethal force, so be it.

J Mark Oates
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