Who's going to rescue you?????
Posted on 12/27/2007 7:13:38 PM PST by PotatoHeadMick
When she spotted yobs vandalising a war memorial garden, Julie Lake sprang into action.
As the daughter of a Second World War RAF pilot – and granddaughter of one of the fallen in the 1914-18 war – she felt it was her duty to intervene. But, after giving the main culprit a talking- to and a 'cuff round the ear', she finds herself facing the prospect of being arrested for assault.
Yesterday Mrs Lake accused police of failing to follow up her complaints about graffiti and other hooliganism in the memorial garden.
"The memorial is a sacred place – it's like a grave," said the 50-year-old.
"How dare these youngsters tarnish the memories of those who made a sacrifice for future generations?
"I've called the police and I've tried to talk to these kids, but I've got nowhere.
"I lost my temper in complete frustration after two years of patiently trying to get something done and immediately the police are after me. It's ridiculous.
"I did not go up to these boys intending to hit anyone but they when they started shouting abuse at me and my husband, Peter, who is recovering from cancer, I just snapped."
She said that 15 youths surrounded her and mockingly asked if her husband, who was in their car, was going to rescue her.
"I saw red and gave the ringleader a slap on the cheek," she added. "He was just laughing and said 'That's assault'.
"Then they took my car registration and rang the police. They all know their rights, they just don't care about anyone else's."
She said many of the older residents of her village – Mangotsfield near Bristol – were too scared to venture out at night because of the yobs.
Gangs of teenagers wearing hooded tops have carried out a series of attacks on the pretty memorial garden with its sombre stone cross.
They have daubed offensive graffiti on the stone, ridden their bikes over wreaths and carved their names into wooden benches.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police confirmed the force is investigating an alleged assault on a 15- year-old boy.
He admitted however that Mangotsfield has a problem with youth vandalism.
Inspector Gus Krouwel said: 'Neighbourhood police regularly receive complaints about groups of around eight young people gathering by the war memorial, drinking and leaving litter.
"I do appreciate that people may get frustrated with this sort of situation but the appropriate response is to work with agencies like the police and local authority to find solutions."
Mrs Lake will voluntarily attend a police station next month to be formally arrested. She could be charged with assault which carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison or a £5,000 fine.
But she said she was prepared to take any punishment she is given to make a point about the effects of anti-social behaviour.
"The yobs have stopped going to the war memorial as much – but this is what it has taken," she said.
"I'll go to prison if I have to, because this is not about me, it is about the whole community who are scared to leave their homes.
"I know the lad I got hold of was the most persistent offender.
"I gave him what the police would call a cuff round the ear and threw his bike into the ground."
Mrs Lake, who works in sales, said the example of her father, who was based in wartime South Africa, had inspired her to take action.
She said: "My father and grandfather serving in the forces have made me very passionate about honouring our soldiers and what they sacrificed.
"My family told me never to shrink from a challenge and although I don't condone what I did, I hope some good comes out of it."
Mrs Lake's 63-year-old husband, a retired airman, also lost a grandfather in the First World War.
Sod off, Swampy!
what a bunch of bloody wankers they are. The townspeople should go chicken oriental, and turn that place into a full out row.
Chicken Oriental??? What?
She was surrounded and asked who was going to help her. Sounds like she was being assulted and responded in self defense.
Quite.
Chicken Oriental is Brit slang for “mental”
She has certainly received very bad legal advice by admitting anything to the reporter, she has indeed a very good case to claim self defence but not if she tells everybody she is guilty before she is even charged!
Ladies got guts, good for her.
It was a hate crime and provocation to violence what the bigoted “yutes” did.
But the police exist to enforce laws now, not keep the peace. Graffiti is no big whoop anymore.
There’s no England.
She’s on a quest. I like her:’)
It’s time the town change the “n” in it’s name to a “g”.
Sounds like they should give her a reward for slapping that jerk around.
The latest installment of “When the West was Doomed”. Western civilization is crumbling before my very eyes. Punks desecrate our monuments and political correctness requires that the police allow them to do so with impunity while punishing anyone who tries to save those monuments.
We are screwed. We are doomed. The west is going the way of Rome before my very eyes. I wish I was born earlier and could have missed all this. Slapping a 15 year old punk should get you a medal for valor, not prosecuted by the pansy police.
Chicken Oriental - is that like “going medieval on your a**?” (Pulp Fiction)
Yes, it does sound like she has a case for self defense. When they surrounded her and asked if her husband was going to rescue her, they were implying that there would be something to be rescued from.
Her point being that the law is a joke.
Lousy stinking squealers. They wouldnt last ten seconds on the mean streets of New York city.
Yeah, that idea seems to be working really well. Work with the local authorities to FIND solutions.
Idiot.
Who's going to rescue you?????
And self defense is illegal in Britain.
Yeah, but England has gotten so far out there I can read a headline like this and don't even have to look at the credit to see where it was published.
And the proper answer is, "Boy, what makes you think you're gonna live long enough to call the police?"
But that attitude is absent, I fear. ;)
“And self defense is illegal in Britain.”
It’s entirely legal. I agree with the poster who said she has received bad legal advice, or possibly hasn’t sought any. She should be making a counter allegation for offences under section four of the public order act.
There’s gonna be a point at which the British people will no longer care about the consequences of defending themselves and their property. When that happens, the gloves come off, and the so-called “yobs” finally find out how far street justice really goes. At that point, anything the government says or does will not amount to squat — they will no longer figure in the picture. The blind worship of Government will finally recede, if only a fraction.
Yes but you know how it will work. The police will offer her a caution or a minor charge of affray or some such, if she agrees to plead guilty, if she refuses they will throw heavier charges of assault with the threat of imprisonment against her. Her solicitor will advise her to accept the lesser charge, the police will have “solved” another crime to meet their target and it will all go on again.
That's "Great" Britain for you.
Don’t ask me, I had to look up Chicken Oriental, and I’ve never seen Pulp Fiction.
I’m happily behind the times.
:D
I thought Alex and his Druges would be involved.
That's because criminals in the UK have more rights than you do. Emigrate to America while you still can. We can use more like you.
The big problem is that criminals have a big advantage over the law-abiding, due to their intimate familiarity with the details of how the criminal-justice system works. Long-time criminals generally know better than to admit to anything, and know that the first one to make a police complaint is generally the one in control of the situation.
But what about those weapons laws that prevent crime victims from even using an everyday object, such as a torch or a cricket bat, to retaliate at a crime scene?
“But what about those weapons laws that prevent crime victims from even using an everyday object, such as a torch or a cricket bat, to retaliate at a crime scene?”
There are no weapons laws that prevent someone from using something that comes to hand to defend themselves.
I'm glad they changed that, then. A few years ago a woman from my state went vacationing in London with her husband, an MD. One day as she shopped by herself, she was mugged in the Underground. She slashed back at her two attackers with her nail file, driving them off. SHE was the one arrested, for using a weapon. To avoid prison, she had to make several trips back to London at her own expense to testify in various phases of a trial. It cost her something like $400,000 for her defense.
The overall legal principle cited by the prosecution in her trial was that Britain has no presumptive right to self defense; the police are supposed to be responsible for your safety, and the victim has no part in it.
“The overall legal principle cited by the prosecution in her trial was that Britain has no presumptive right to self defense”
That’s never been a legal principle under UK law. Self defence is an absolute defence under law, and the burden of proof is on the prosecution.
Obviously it’s hard to comment on the details of a specific case without full details.
Sounds like her local police need a visit from a vigilance committee...
Yes that’s all very well but you simply cannot deny that there has been a de facto if not de jure swing away from the police, and it must be said Crown Prosecution Service, giving the victim the benefit of the doubt to being neutral between the criminal and the victim.
Now in this case you might say that the lady in question is the criminal and the youth is the victim which indeed is the police’s opinion but you have to admit that thirty years ago the little lout would have been sent packing by any copper to whom he had the effrontery to allege he was the victim of a criminal assault from this middle aged lady.
That former “common sense” approach to policing has been abandoned in the UK in favour of a strict literalism and neutrality and no amount of parsing and analysing the current state of UK legislation is going to gainsay that. It is this change in the nature of British policing which angers most “respectable” people, it is a delight of course to the Left who actively seek to undermine “respectable” British society.
“Now in this case you might say that the lady in question is the criminal and the youth is the victim which indeed is the police’s opinion”
How is it the police’s opinion? They haven’t even spoken to her about it yet.
“That former “common sense” approach to policing has been abandoned in the UK in favour of a strict literalism and neutrality and no amount of parsing and analysing the current state of UK legislation is going to gainsay that.”
In some respects that is certainly correct. On the other hand, in the past, people complained that there was a lack of answerability by the police and some units seemed to be a law unto themselves, and also that police forces tended to under-record crime in order to make their figures look better.
To correct that, the police are now required to follow prescriptive national standards as to when they should or shouldn’t record a crime. They are lots of places where a more common sense approach could be used but in the end, we can’t have it both ways.
> She was surrounded and asked who was going to help her. Sounds like she was being assulted and responded in self defense.
I believe that you are correct.
If we get down to legal definations, assault is a verbal threat and battery is the act of carrying through on the threat (hitting).
If a YOB the same as a what we call over here a YUTE?
Property crime, vandalism and muggings were rampant in London when I lived there. My children were mugged 3 times in one year (by yobs)and the police "advice" was for them to carry a few pounds that they could “give” the mugger without creating a “tense” situation.
The implication was, that since they looked “American”, they attracted the muggings.
I made rolls of “2P” coins for them to carry in self defense. It worked magnificently on the fourth muggers’ nose.
I’m not convinced things have changed based on this old lady’s experience.
“I do appreciate that people may get frustrated with this sort of situation but the appropriate response is to work with agencies like the police and local authority to find solutions.”
This inspector ought to get assaulted across the face too. What a jerk. The police should be profusely apologizing to the woman for not doing their job.
“How is it the police’s opinion? They haven’t even spoken to her about it yet.”
From the article;
*Mrs Lake will voluntarily attend a police station next month to be formally arrested.*
Clearly someone from the local constabulary has had a word in her shell-like, unless she found out she is to be formally arrested by telepathy.
Yes, when the police have grounds to suspect someone of a crime they formally arrest them prior to interviewing them. It’s the first stage of the investigation, not the conclusion.
I just love Limey slang, what little I know of it.
I understand that.
I didn’t say it was the conclusion, but you stated “that they [the police] haven’t even spoken to her yet”, that is clearly incorrect and your obsession with the minutiae of procedure doesn’t detract from the overall picture of a police force more concerned with this woman’s behaviour than that of the louts who roam her area.
It’s a simple concept and one which I would have thought someone who called himself a UK Tory could understand. The UK police now see themselves as neutral enforcers of the law in the same way as their European counterparts, schooled in the Code Napoleon, have always considered themselves.
However what traditionally set British policemen aside from continental policemen was that the job of a British constable was first and foremost keeping the peace, not enforcing the law, it might seem a subtle difference but it was in fact the bedrock of community support for British policing for generations.
If the British police want to become gendarmes, blindly enforcing state decrees, well then let them come out and say so and let them not be surprised by the concomitant hostility of ordinary British citizens towards them.
I would have thought a self describing Tory could understand this basic principle.
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