Would You Consider Protection?

Beans27

valk_scot wrote: »

I am a bellower, I've got a voice like a foghorn when I get angry. I got angry the evening that I saw a bunch of yobs throwing bricks and such at my elderly neighbour's door, she's in her eighties and I had this horrible vision of her having a heart attack from fear. I shouted for my teenage son to phone the police and to stay in the house with his sister and then went charging out yelling like a fishwife. The yobs scattered like I'd thrown a grenade in their midst and one of them fell over a wall, which was most satisfactory. He was sitting there blubbing that he'd cut his head while his one mate brave enough to stay with him kept trying to say "It wisnie us Missus!" and then the police car arrived. My son had told them his middle aged mother had gone out to duff up a dozen teenage lads, apparently, and the police had made haste to rescue me. My son could also identify all but one of the culprits, that's what comes of living in a town with only one secondary school. My neighbour? She was fast asleep in the back bedroom of her house the entire time.


I do think that (up to the point it actually gets dangerous) folk should stick up for each other and not allow the scrotes of this world to get away with anything they feel like. There has to be a bit of instant social disapproval rather than the current Not My Problem society we live in.


On the question of weapons inside the home, I do have many things in the house that could be used as weapons including a sledgehammer that I use in the garden. I would go for one if I were cornered as a last resort but no way would I even think about picking up my sledgehammer or kitchen knife and attacking a burglar that was just there for a bit of thievery rather than GBH. Things are just things and anyway by escalating the violence you're more likely to get hurt badly yourself. And if I'd picked up a weapon before I ran out to confront these teenagers I'd have put myself very much in the wrong. What next...taking pot shots at people from the bedroom window because they were walking down the pavement opposite the house and I didn't like the look of them? That's what happens in the US and I for one don't want our country to end up like that.

Valk_Scott I had to quote your post, just creased up laughing reading that - I completely agree, we need to stick up for each other and not be afraid of speaking up when something isn't right.

Your thoughts on weapons also make sesne - I had always thought I would confront a burglar from sheer outrage more than anything, but actually, probably not the most sensible course of action.

Not sure our Lab puppy would make much of a guard dog, she'd be more likely to lick someone to death :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Protection anyone?

DKLS

Gavin83 wrote: »

I think SA has it right in terms of defending your house but I wouldn't wish to live in a country where guns were as freely available.

They seem to take it for granted, my wifes mate lives in a stunning villa in a gated community, it has 12 foot high fences topped with razor wire, and armed security service, and 4 large bitey dogs. All family members are armed and trained in how to use them.

Not my kind of lifestyle.

Richard53

I asked a policemen friend about this, saying I was considering getting a bseball bat to keep by the bed (we live in a very remote location, no neighbours and I don't think the police even know we are here, plus there is very poor mobile coverage). His advice was very useful:

A baseball bat an offensive weapon unless you are a baseball player, and keeping it beside the bed is evidence of intent.

A Maglite torch, however, is a very reasonable thing to be holding while you investigate noises in the night. Hold it over your shoulder pointing forward, and you can use it to temporarily blind the intruder, or as a weapon if you need to.

You are allowed to use reasonable force to protect life and property in your own home. What is 'reasonable' will be decided by a court. Shooting an unarmed intruder while he is leaving the property is not reasonable (Tony Martin), and chasing him up the road with your family to give him a good kicking isn't either (Munir Hussain). But you are entitled to defend yourself in your own home with whatever comes to hand. Self defence is OK, administering punishment is not. Once the threat to you or your family is removed or neutralised (intruder subdued or left the premises), you must stop. The courts should recognise that in your own home at night, you are likely to be terrified would not be expected to make fine judgements of degree.

Better still, as others have said, have good door and window locks and a good lock on the bedroom door.

Georgiegirl256

Richard53 wrote: »

A Maglite torch, however, is a very reasonable thing to be holding while you investigate noises in the night. Hold it over your shoulder pointing forward, and you can use it to temporarily blind the intruder, or as a weapon if you need to.

Good advice. We have one of those big Maglite torches (the biggest one I think), and it's actually quite heavy and chunky....a blow to someone with one of them if needed would certainly do the job!

growler834

My can of hairspray on the bedside table is my method of self defence should a burglar enter my room. It's an item you would reasonably have near your bed (as a female!) and sprayed in the burglar's eyes it is good self defence to enable you to leave the scene before the burglar can see you (I thought he was going to sexually assault me your honour)!

Yorkie1

Richard53 wrote: »

I asked a policemen friend about this, saying I was considering getting a bseball bat to keep by the bed (we live in a very remote location, no neighbours and I don't think the police even know we are here, plus there is very poor mobile coverage). His advice was very useful:

A baseball bat an offensive weapon unless you are a baseball player, and keeping it beside the bed is evidence of intent.

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this assessment but it's certainly an arguable point.

You are allowed to use reasonable force to protect life and property in your own home. What is 'reasonable' will be decided by a court. Shooting an unarmed intruder while he is leaving the property is not reasonable (Tony Martin), and chasing him up the road with your family to give him a good kicking isn't either (Munir Hussain). But you are entitled to defend yourself in your own home with whatever comes to hand. Self defence is OK, administering punishment is not. Once the threat to you or your family is removed or neutralised (intruder subdued or left the premises), you must stop. The courts should recognise that in your own home at night, you are likely to be terrified would not be expected to make fine judgements of degree.

Better still, as others have said, have good door and window locks and a good lock on the bedroom door.

Actually the law has changed so that you can now use disproportionate (but not grossly disproportionate) force in your own home, as opposed to only reasonable force - but I agree with the rest of your post.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/self_defence/#a01

BitterAndTwisted

growler834 wrote: »

My can of hairspray on the bedside table is my method of self defence should a burglar enter my room. It's an item you would reasonably have near your bed (as a female!) and sprayed in the burglar's eyes it is good self defence to enable you to leave the scene before the burglar can see you (I thought he was going to sexually assault me your honour)!

Knowing my luck in the dark I'd be more likely to spray myself in the face with the damned stuff!

Richard53

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Good advice. We have one of those big Maglite torches (the biggest one I think), and it's actually quite heavy and chunky....a blow to someone with one of them if needed would certainly do the job!

I think mine is the 4-cell variety, about 18" long. It's actually quite cumbersome and heavy for regular use as a torch, but I imagine if you hit someone with the blunt end they wouldn't get up for a while.

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I'm not sure I entirely agree with this assessment but it's certainly an arguable point.



Actually the law has changed so that you can now use disproportionate (but not grossly disproportionate) force in your own home, as opposed to only reasonable force - but I agree with the rest of your post.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/self_defence/#a01

The advice was from a long-serving copper who has taken cases like this through court, so I am happy to take his opinion on it. Most courts would be fairly sympathetic to someone who woke up to find a burglar on the landing, but his point was that a torch is an 'innocent' object in these situations, whereas a baseball bat kept by the bed could be made to look as if you were anticipating a confrontation. A clever lawyer and a dim judge could find you on the wrong end of a GBH charge.

I know the advice was updated, and in favour of the householder, but the judgement of what is reasonable or proportionate is still made by a court. A punishment beating would still be regarded as assault, whereas self-defence is quite widely interpreted. I am of the view that once you have crossed someone's theshold with malicious intent, you are fair game and anything that happens to you is your own misfortune. But the law is still a long way from that.

cottage_retreatist

um - we have one of those carbonite steel baseball bats in our bedroom!! you know - the type that doesn't bend even if you drove over it!

never used it, never had to and it's tucked away next to our golfing umbrella! But when we were living in a rougher part of town OH kept it under the bed!! piece of mind rather than anything else!!!

Might take up baseball when we get a garden! til then its just another random piece of junk but nice to know its there!!!

also used to own a hockey stick and a cricket bat - sporty types (once upon a time!!!) - they would have come in handy! "I was practising my swing officer at 4am and a burglar walked straight into the bat!"