| Author | Message | ||
     Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Salford-Burglar-John-Bennell-Stabbed-To -Death-Peter-Flanagan-Held-On-Suspicion-Of-Murder/Article/201106416017860?lpos=U K_News_Top_Stories_Header_4&lid=ARTICLE_16017860_Salford_Burglar_John_Bennell_St abbed_To_Death%3A_Peter_Flanagan_Held_On_Suspicion_Of_Murder Known criminal (out on bail as was the young lad Tony Martin shot) in a gang of 4 break into a man's house at midnight, the man defends his property and stabs the known criminal. The criminals friends drag the wounded man out of the house and leave him to die in the middle of the road a few hundred meters away. Who have the police arrested? The man defending his house of course... who else is such an easy target? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'm just glad the person stabbed wasn't one of the innocent victims, for once. I can just imagine the adrenaline shock of being confronted in my own house by four thugs in balaclavas. How this bloke ever managed to get the better of them is beyond me but I hope he's being treated for shock wherever they're holding him. Well done, sir. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
"How this bloke ever managed to get the better of them is beyond me" He stuck a knife in one of them and they all ran off. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
I'm sure it wasn't quite as simple as that, Weber. Have you ever seen the Bogart movie 'The Desperate Hours' (1955) - based on an actual event very reminiscent of this one? Although, in this case, it would have been more 'The Desperate Minutes'... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.14.125 |
The alacrity with which people rush to judge a situation based on a newspaper report saddens me. We need the courts, evidence eyewitnesses and character witnesses are used for a reason - because to get to the truth objectively and understand all the events in context is difficult. And it takes time. Nobody should feel compelled to have an opinion about this case. In fact, not even the police seem to know exactly what happened. On a bigger issue, there's a reason that people are encouraged to avoid conflict with burglars and retreat if possible - physical conflict is the worst possible outcome from such a situation. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
Point taken. I do tend toward knee-jerk reactions when confronted with cases of apparent injustice. I will qualify my statements with: "based on current knowledge of the case, as presented by the media, this man has all my initial sympathy." But I stand by my point that during any unprovoked attack (as this appears to have been) the victim(s) cannot be judged responsible for their instinctive reactions - under duress, pumped full of adrenaline and suffering terror and shock. The same applies to those people who climb over others, pushing and kicking, to escape during plane crashes, etc. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.14.125 |
"But I stand by my point that during any unprovoked attack ... the victim(s) cannot be judged responsible for their instinctive reactions - under duress, pumped full of adrenaline and suffering terror and shock." Leaving this case aside, I actually agree with this. The problem occurs when acts of violence in response to aggression are not instinctive, but rather pre-planned, sustained or excessive in nature. And obviously it can't be left up to the individual involved to decide whether the response is disproportionate: that must remain the decision of the legal system. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.150.16.212 |
I live pretty much round the corner from where this happened. Four guys in balaclavas batter down the back door of someone's house at midnight. They're not there on a nice social visit. The owner of the house reacts to the invasion in a reasonable way. If it's four against one in an unprovoked attack, (or a provoked attack when you think about it) and you're the One... you use what you can to stay alive yourself. When people have invaded your home in the manner that happened here, you have a very good case that you're in fear for your own life. In this case, retreat was almost certainly not possible. The police were called as the 4 thugs (lets not pretend they deserve any more complimentary title) were breaking into the house. The dead guy was out on bail for similar offenses... Simple fact is that if they hadn't piled round to someone else's house at midnight and battered their way in, they'd all still be alive. I have no sympathy and it really offends me when the dead guy is referred to as the victim in this type of case. the victim is the person whose house was broken into. Tony Martin's house had been broken into several times over a matter of a few months when he finally snapped and took things into his own hands. I never had anything other than full sympathy for him and to this day i think it's a travesty that he was ever sent to prison. Let alone the fact that he served the full term and was never given any parole. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.29.245 |
I stand by all of my previous statements. |