Intruder in the home

Ooh Sabre you had me worried there, I thought that you were referring to yourself, phew.

Yes I heard the news of the incident and feel sad at the whole outcome.

The grim reality is yes we should have a right to defend our property with a modicum of force but I'm not in favour of taking a life for a paltry robbery.

This is a contentious modern day issue which will rally on and on over the years to come.

Thanks for your concern Lillie but it wasn't me but friends who I have been on holiday with. The friend came home on her own and saw someone leaving the property but was too frightened to approach them in the Street and had to enter the property alone only to find her house had been burgled and a lot of sentimental items taken. She wonders herself what she would have done if she had been in the house on her own.

I'd go to any means to defend my person and property. If I thought the law was going to prosecute me for that, I'd go Machiavelli on the burglar.

I've got a garden and a shovel :)

Oh my, this is the old catch 22 chestnut, isn't it. You can use 'reasonable force' to defend yourself but nothing that may actually kill the guy. That means that the intruder has rights ( human or otherwise ) the minute he invades your private space. He can hurt you, even kill you ( for which he will of course face the wrath of the law ) but you cannot maim or kill him, by law. With this cosy knowledge in mind, intruders have the edge. What are we supposed to do? Say 'be a good chap and put the shooter away and vacate my premises?'.
The law has to recognise that people who intrude with the threat of violence against the householder must take a chance, entirely at their own risk, that they may be met with equal and effective violence. Not everyone is capable of doing that, of course, but faced with panic and fear, our decent human psyche can only react in whatever way it can.

Having said that, finding a knife and stabbing the intruder to death is not good for all concerned but the law shoulr recognise that the criminal has taken that very risk of violence for violence immediately he has illegally and forcibly entered your premises.

Tell that to the judge though .....

I sense and possibly fear the rise of the vigilante, not for any personal reasons but for the sense it will create of a society out of control.

With police numbers being scaled back and the tendency of the courts to not jail people for financial reasons rather than the punishment fitting the crime, then increasingly people will imagine a lawless threat greater than it really is and arm themselves for personal protection.

I will always defend the right of a person to defend their family, home and property. However, many feel the need to possess a weapon when they are out and about.

Recently, I witnessed a road rage incident, where the car driver that had been wronged followed the offending car to the traffic lights, got out with a crow bar and his passenger with a baseball bat and set upon the car and the occupants in a bloody and vicious attack.

'Bad people should be afraid of the law. When they are not, we have to be afraid of bad people'.

I think it was the journalist Peter Hitchens who said that.

I don't honestly know what I'd do in that situation, Sabre.

As a female, I'd like to think I'd think twice about taking on a burglar (who is most likely to be male and bigger than 5'2" me!) but I don't know for sure.

I do know that not so long ago when 3 strapping blokes were vandalising my car in the middle of the night, I felt really, really angry, and desperately wanted to go out there and stop them, but common sense told me not to...3 of them, one of me...so I just had to stand there and watch them from my bedroom window, telling myself that it was 'just a car'.

But, with a burglar who's entered your home, I just don't know...I just hope I never have to find out.