The second way in which the law is an ass at a fundamental level is with the rights of people to defend themselves.

There has been a succession of cases over this principle. The most famous probably being that of Tony Martin who ended up in prison for manslaughter after shooting an intruder with a shotgun consequent to repeated break-ins on his property.

There is also the case of Kenneth Faulkner who shot a burglar but who did not face prosecution. The burglar, John Rae, rightfully received a seven year sentence as he had burgled Mr Faulkner’s farmhouse three times.

More recently there was the case of Munir and Tokeer Hussain being imprisoned for beating up an intruder.

In the above cases either the victims (and I don’t mean the burglars) had either been subjected to repeated burglaries, or they had been burgled by repeat offenders or by a mixture of both. That means that the legal system as it stands cannot protect the average law abiding person from burglaries. It can neither find, nor prosecute nor put away the perpetrators. The law therefore fails these people, so what should they do? What would you do?

Even more recently Myleene Klass, the well known presenter, has been warned by police for waving a knife at intruders trying to break into here garden shed. The police told her the knife was still classified as an offensive weapon even in this case. She was at home alone with a two year old daughter for God’s sake!

Now, let’s look at this a bit more closely. When a thug waves a knife at you and demands money with menaces then that is ‘using an offensive weapon’. But when you are protecting yourself from a perceived threat then that is ‘use of a defensive weapon’, but that is not a concept recognised in our law sad to say.

When someone breaks into your property you do not know why they are there. Being me I would assume the worst. Not that they are there to take a bit of money and run, but that they are there with extreme prejudice. After all that is the safest option to take. Especially if you have a bit of money and could be considered as a potentially lucrative kidnappee. The police cannot react fast enough in most cases so people must be given the legal protection to use whatever means they see fit to protect themselves.

There is a concept in law that says ‘take your victim as you find them’, the ‘thin skull doctrine’. This should extend to cover cases like this, if your intended victim fights back ferociously because they misunderstand the situation or the burglars intent causing even fatal consequences then they should be protected. That would then allow the doctrine to cover the psychological as well as the physical. Further than that, it should also be assumed this is the case and up to the attacker or burglar to prove otherwise beyond a shadow of doubt.

Related Articles:

Munir Hussain and brother Tokeer jailed for beating up intruder

The law in the UK is an Ass (1)

------ Other articles of interest ------

• Munir Hussain goes free
• Do UK laws protect the Public?
• The law in the UK is an Ass (3)
• JP calls vandals SCUM

Tags: kenneth faulkner, munir hussain, myleene klass, News, the law, the law is an ass, thin skull doctrine, tony martin

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.