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Pensioner arrested for chasing away youths with piece of wood
The Telegraph ^ | July 8, 2008 | Nigel Bunyan

Posted on 07/10/2008 4:48:56 AM PDT by marktwain

A pensioner who used a piece of wood to chase away a gang of teenagers who had been throwing stones at his home is facing a jail term after being arrested and charged with possessing an offensive weapon. Sydney Davis, 65, a father-of-two, dialled 999 when his home in the Pinehurst area of Swindon, Wilts, came under attack. But when police failed to turn up over the next two hours he decided to take action himself. He grabbed a section of wood from a broken-up sofa lying in his front garden and chased the youths down the street - just as police officers finally arrived. Mr Davis, a retired builder, was astonished when police arrested him while allowing the gang to run to safety. The householder now faces a court appearance and a potential prison term of six months if convicted. Mr Davis, whose windows have been smashed five times in the last eight months, branded the law "a colossal ass". He went on: "This is Britain gone mad. Just what in the world is this country coming to when the police arrest people like me for protecting their own property? "The police say they want to reduce crime, yet they let evil little toe-rags like this off. Then they prosecute hard-working, upstanding residents like me. "There is simply no way we can shake off this problem of 'Yob Britain' if the legal system fails to protect the everyday person". Mr Davis' difficulties began on July 2 when a gang started throwing stones, stick, mud and eggs at a number of homes.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; defense; doomed; uk; wood
As the pensioner says "This is Britain gone mad."
1 posted on 07/10/2008 4:52:11 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

GB is screwed beyond any hope of repair...


2 posted on 07/10/2008 4:53:53 AM PDT by xcamel (Being on the wrong track means the unintended consequences express train doesnt kill you going by)
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To: marktwain

I like this guy. What does “Yob, Britain” mean?


3 posted on 07/10/2008 4:55:27 AM PDT by Drawsing (The fool shows his annoyance at once. The prudent man overlooks an insult. (Proverbs 12:16))
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To: marktwain

Britain has lost it’s marbles - collectively. This guy would be considered a hero in a more sane society.


4 posted on 07/10/2008 4:56:38 AM PDT by meyer (Government is the problem, not the solution.)
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To: marktwain
Apparently, he did not get the 'message' when the "police" did not show up.

Forget England. It is toast.

5 posted on 07/10/2008 4:58:11 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: marktwain

I’m wondering if the “gang of teenagers” is a gang of Muslims.


6 posted on 07/10/2008 4:59:13 AM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: marktwain

That’s us in 20(?) years.


7 posted on 07/10/2008 4:59:42 AM PDT by ryan71 (Typical bitter white gun toter)
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To: marktwain
'evil little toe-rags'

Is this slang, or an indication of ethnicity?

8 posted on 07/10/2008 5:00:15 AM PDT by mathluv
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To: mathluv

It’s Brit slang. “toe rag” is a derogatory term used mainly for lower class, ill-behaved white Britons. It has no ethnic slant.


9 posted on 07/10/2008 5:03:46 AM PDT by CholeraJoe (Guarding humanity against things that go bump in the night.)
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To: marktwain
There have been quite a few threads lately from the UK in which a crime is committed and when the police show up, they arrest the victim.

Their society is seriously falling apart.

10 posted on 07/10/2008 5:03:50 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Et si omnes ego non)
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To: marktwain

“Great” Briton is finished and has been for some time.


11 posted on 07/10/2008 5:05:05 AM PDT by BigCinBigD (")
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To: ClearCase_guy

It would be WAY cool to see those stories all in one place if some Freeper with a little time on his or her hands wanted to take up the case!


12 posted on 07/10/2008 5:06:56 AM PDT by FrPR
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To: ryan71

No it’s not.


13 posted on 07/10/2008 5:07:14 AM PDT by BigCinBigD (")
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To: marktwain

I visited England a couple years ago. I found the practice of mobs of teenagers getting drunk at “clubs” reprehensible. Also, it would be a mistake to assume the local indigenous youth are not at fault here.


14 posted on 07/10/2008 5:08:34 AM PDT by Varda
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To: marktwain

Everyday I’m reading more and more of England or someone from England doing something or saying something crazy like this. I have little hope for our own country at times, but with England I don’t think there’s any turning around. I’m going to start cataloging this craziness. I don’t know for what purpose, but it needs to be kept track of.


15 posted on 07/10/2008 5:11:34 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: aculeus; dighton; Lijahsbubbe
He grabbed a section of wood from a broken-up sofa lying in his front garden...

Garden decor that will get you arrested ping.

16 posted on 07/10/2008 5:14:09 AM PDT by Ezekiel (Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.)
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To: marktwain

Those poor disadvantage kids were just expressing themselves freely and this violent old man chases them away with a deadly weapon! What happened to civility in Great Britain?


17 posted on 07/10/2008 5:14:49 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: Drawsing

Basically, a yob is a thug in our speak. Usually a young, unemployed and prone to “mischief” youth.


18 posted on 07/10/2008 5:16:02 AM PDT by doodad
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To: beaversmom

Excellent idea! I look forward to your thread on this. It is truly cultural insanity.

But why doesn’t some Brit do this? Don’t they have a forum of their own where they discuss this or would the British thought police shut down the website?


19 posted on 07/10/2008 5:16:07 AM PDT by squarebarb
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To: marktwain

“Mr Davis, whose windows have been smashed five times in the last eight months, branded the law “a colossal ass”. He went on: “This is Britain gone mad.”

All that, and Britain has fools for leaders. Where did they come from?


20 posted on 07/10/2008 5:16:10 AM PDT by Will88
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To: marktwain

Me thinks I’d smuggle a gun into jolly ole England, if I were to live there.

No need to call police.
No need to hang around after “resolving” these encounters.


21 posted on 07/10/2008 5:18:21 AM PDT by G Larry (Fight B.O. with RIGHT GUARD! Vote McCain!)
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To: marktwain

They should ban the baseball bat immediately!


22 posted on 07/10/2008 5:19:18 AM PDT by the_devils_advocate_666
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To: FrPR

Here’s another thread with someone in Britain being arrested because they were the victim of a crime.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041756/posts


23 posted on 07/10/2008 5:21:40 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Et si omnes ego non)
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To: squarebarb
There's this....

Free Britania

24 posted on 07/10/2008 5:24:13 AM PDT by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: mewzilla
Whoops, my bad....Free Britannia
25 posted on 07/10/2008 5:24:49 AM PDT by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: marktwain

“...used a piece of wood...”


Was it a pointed stick?


26 posted on 07/10/2008 5:27:53 AM PDT by Beelzebubba (Guns don't kill people, criminals and the governments that create them do.)
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To: squarebarb

I’ll probably just post the links on my profile page. I don’t know what happened with Britain. I’ve got extended family over there. My mom’s from there. I went twice as a little kid and thorougly enjoyed it—that was in the 70’s though. It’s definitely not the Britain my mom grew up in during the 30’s through the 50’s. I know they had the war going on during some of those years, but the country on the whole seems to completely have lost its mind.


27 posted on 07/10/2008 5:28:20 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom
My impression was that the indigenous English were more likely to engage in this behavior than immigrant types. When I read this, I understood why. Illegitimacy is a precursor to crime.

“Births outside marriage increased year by year since the early 1970s. Over the past 10 years the proportion has risen from 12% to 41% across England and Wales as a whole.

It passed 50% in north-east England in 2000 and last year stood at 53.5%. The north-west was not far behind on 48%, but in London - where a higher proportion of young mothers were from the Muslim community - only 34.5% of children were born outside marriage.”

28 posted on 07/10/2008 5:30:38 AM PDT by Varda
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To: ryan71

Much less than 20 years. 10 years at the most.


29 posted on 07/10/2008 5:34:23 AM PDT by sport
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To: marktwain

And, a demonstration of gun control taken to the extreme. First the firearms, then the swords and knives. Ultimately, simple, utilitarian clubs become ‘offensive weapons’. Simply ridiculous, IMO.

The UK has fallen over the edge and into the PC, Multi-Culti crevasse, sadly. A once proud nation; reduced to an anachronism, sadly funny in its continued pomposity, and destined to historical obscurity if it continues on the present course.

More unfortunately, the US is on the same path, in my view.


30 posted on 07/10/2008 5:38:02 AM PDT by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion)
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To: marktwain
When pieces of wood are outlawed, only outlaws will have pieces of wood.

After reading a story like this, I don't know how anyone can oppose sensible, common-sense piece-of-wood registration...

31 posted on 07/10/2008 5:40:52 AM PDT by NewJerseyJoe (Rat mantra: "Facts are meaningless! You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!")
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To: marktwain

This is what happens when you let hard core socialists run your country for a number of years.


32 posted on 07/10/2008 5:48:36 AM PDT by ikka
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To: savedbygrace
I’m wondering if the “gang of teenagers” is a gang of Muslims.

Probably not. The article uses the term "Yob" which generally describes drunken, white teenagers and young men who commit crime and violence for sport. Think "A Clockwork Orange." White "Yobs" or "Chavs" are known as the "ASBO Generation" and figure in much of Britain's violent crime in the last 10 or 15 years.

33 posted on 07/10/2008 5:58:30 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: NewJerseyJoe
common-sense piece-of-wood registration

Or how about common sense, broken-up sofa lying in his front garden registration.

34 posted on 07/10/2008 6:30:16 AM PDT by bird4four4 (Behead those who suggest Islam is violent!)
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To: Ezekiel
Garden decor that will get you arrested ping.

Form follows function....

35 posted on 07/10/2008 6:31:28 AM PDT by Lijahsbubbe
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To: marktwain

I knew this was the UK as soon as I read the title.


36 posted on 07/10/2008 6:37:04 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: marktwain

And were the teenagers arrested for throwing “offensive weapons” at his house?

This is noxious. You can’t defend your own house with a piece of wood?

Why would anyone choose to live in Britain?


37 posted on 07/10/2008 7:07:57 AM PDT by popdonnelly (Does Obama know ANYONE who likes America, capitalism, or white people?)
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To: the_devils_advocate_666

Crickett bat?


38 posted on 07/10/2008 7:08:17 AM PDT by em2vn
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To: ryan71

Not in Texas. Here you can step out on your front porch with a shotgun and solve the problem permanently.


39 posted on 07/10/2008 7:12:17 AM PDT by Zippo44 (Liberal: another word for poltroon.)
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To: Zippo44

Britain needs a revolution. BADLY.


40 posted on 07/10/2008 7:18:59 AM PDT by Arkansas Toothpick
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To: marktwain

Unbelievable. What the hell are the British thinking?


41 posted on 07/10/2008 7:21:00 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Proudly belching carbon units since 1961)
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To: Ezekiel; dighton; Lijahsbubbe
The police say they want to reduce crime, yet they let evil little toe-rags like this off.

Toe-rags?

To remove toe jam?

Anyone?

42 posted on 07/10/2008 8:23:42 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: Zippo44
Not in Texas. Here you can step out on your front porch with a shotgun and solve the problem permanently

Yep, even if there is a cop sitting right out on the street watching the whole thing go down, and apparently munching on his donut.

43 posted on 07/10/2008 9:11:01 AM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: marktwain

They have truly lost their minds over there.


44 posted on 07/10/2008 9:15:18 AM PDT by Old Mountain man (Official FR PITA)
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To: marktwain

Aw give them a break, they were on a tea break.


45 posted on 07/10/2008 10:05:08 AM PDT by chiefqc
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To: Ezekiel

I didn’t realize that the English had their own Mountain Williamses....closer cultural ties than I had realized!


46 posted on 07/10/2008 12:10:55 PM PDT by absalom01 (The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.)
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To: CholeraJoe

Thanks for that info!


47 posted on 07/10/2008 1:01:56 PM PDT by mathluv
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To: xcamel

Agreed - FUBAR; completely FUBAR.


48 posted on 07/10/2008 3:16:25 PM PDT by Jack Hammer (here)
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To: marktwain

If citizens are allowed to arm themselves, there’s a limit as to how much of a free reign the politicians can grant their favored crooks. Even if everyone who raised a finger against the yobs was summarily executed, there would still be some citizens who would rather die knowing they took some of the crooks with them than surrender to totalitarian anarchy. That would pose an unacceptable deterrent for the yobs—thus the need to completely disarm the citizenry.


49 posted on 07/10/2008 5:40:54 PM PDT by supercat
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