View From The Porch: QotD: Where Great Britain Used To Be Edition.

Friday, May 28, 2010

QotD: Where Great Britain Used To Be Edition.

From TJIC:

Guns are illegal.

Knives are illegal.

Only 492,000 more nouns to go, and England will finally be crime free!

For some reason, that really kicked over my gigglebox and yet also made me sad, all at the same time.

10 comments:

Bob said...: After guns and knives, they'll come for pointed sticks, and eventually work their way down to fresh fruit. You just wait and see.; 7:56 AM, May 28, 2010
Hunsdon said...: The sun has set.; 9:21 AM, May 28, 2010
staghounds said...: "man pursuing a Ph.D. in homicide..."

I think he's passed ΦΒΚ, with that dissertation.; 9:23 AM, May 28, 2010
Montie said...: Notice the phrase:

"One of the victims was caught on closed-circuit television last week being killed with a crossbow shot to the head before her dismembered body was dumped in a nearby river."

As I have learned after all these years of police work, a massive proliferation of security cameras does not necessarily make anybody safer, it just makes prosecution easier...sometimes.

We are gradually heading in the direction that the UK has gone with the massive use of cameras and I'm not sure I care for it.

BTW, I can't imagine that crossbows are legal in the UK, where grandma can get locked up for possessing that sterling silver butter knife she's had in the kitchen drawer for years.; 12:05 PM, May 28, 2010
Ed Foster said...: Starting in the 1490's, the English required all Irish weapons with a blade longer than 4 inches to be serialized and registered with it's owner's name in government files. Look haw much peace that's given Ireland these past 5 centuries.; 1:15 PM, May 28, 2010
TJP said...: Those absolute statements can't apply. None of those things are illegal. Practically anyone financially connected with the Home Office can walk around scratching his back with a loaded IW.; 1:59 PM, May 28, 2010
Montie said...: TJP,

True, but God help them if they use it in self-defense. Self-defense is for all practial purposes outlawed in the UK, no matter who you are. Especially if it results in injury or death to the ne'er-do-well (notice how I carefully use UK instead of GB, as far as I'm concerned, that country no longer exists).; 3:37 PM, May 28, 2010
staghounds said...: Self defence, as it is generally applied in American jurisdictions, is perfectly legal in Britain.

The problem is that the term "self defence" has been used to describe a couple of well known incidents that ended with the pursuit and further attempts to kill the threatening person, even after the threat had been rendered harmless.

So no, after they break in, it's not legal to shoot them, chase them until they drop, and shoot them as they beg for mercy supine on the ground before you.

That's not self defence in Texas, either.

Unfortunately self defence in the British context, which is urban criminal insurgency, makes little sense. Effective self defence tools are unavailable to most victims.

More to the point, criminals run in groups, and the victim will still be helpless and available to injure as a warning after the police haul the attacker away.

Sure, Mrs. Smith might be able to crack Kevin the burglar's skull with a frying pan. But Darren and Dewayne will watch the police investigation, winking at her.

When they come back next week, they will bring a couple of feet of rebar.

May as well talk about "self defence" to South Vietnamese peasants in 1970.; 4:52 PM, May 28, 2010
Tam said...: Staghounds,

Yes, but aren't the Brits big on the whole "proportional force" thing, too? I mean, haven't they frowned on Mrs. (or Mr.) Smith using a frying pan when the poor misunderstood yoot was only menacing the householder with his bare hands?; 5:12 PM, May 28, 2010
Stranger said...: Of the popular murder weapons; knife, gun, cosh (club), or "personal weapons;" the most dangerous are the personal weapons.

While hands and feet are less commonly used than knives, the mortality rate is actually higher.

I do see a trend shaping up, where UK juries are beginning to get a belly full of the yobs running roughshod over them and are refusing to convict those accused of self defense.

Even when the attack was with fists and the female defending herself snatched a kitchen knife off the counter.

Several pols have suddenly discovered some outrage for the situation as a result.

Stranger; 8:15 PM, May 28, 2010