(NaturalNews) There is a saying - in the U.S., anyway - that a “man’s house is his castle.” That saying can carry a host of meanings, not the least of which is that a man’s home is his sacred sanctuary and it cannot be violated by anyone.
But that’s here in the United States, where political correctness in the legal system hasn’t quite reached the level it has in our cousin country, Great Britain.
There, defending your home can land you in jail, while the trespasser criminal is allowed, in some cases, to get off scot-free.
A report in the Daily Telegraph provided a glimpse into this topsy-turvy, upside-down legal precedent.
In one recent incident, a farm tenant and his wife, both of whom had suffered a number of break-ins already, were arrested and jailed after using a legally-owned firearm (not an easy thing to obtain in the gun-free zone of England) to shoot at and wound one of two burglars who surprised the couple in the night.
But wait. The outrage gets worse.
Multiple robberies, but that doesn’t seem to matter
According to reports, the husband used his weapon to fire at the intruders, who then fled the isolated farmhouse before calling police.
Yes, that’s right: Both of the burglars were shot and wounded, and one of them actually called the cops. But he must’ve known what he was doing because his victim got arrested for nothing more than defending his home.
“This is not the first time they have been broken into,” said the arrested man’s mother, in comments to the paper. “They have been robbed three or four times. One of them was quite nasty.”
The mother went on to say the couple has never been injured during the series of robberies, but obviously they were “marked” as an “easy score” by the local thugs, and it might only have been just a matter of time before “quite nasty” turned, literally, into something quite nasty. Victims are never empowered; only criminals who are allowed to operate unchallenged are empowered.
Other farmers in the area chimed in as well. They, too, have been victimized.
“We had three Land Rovers stolen,” one told the paper. “We had fitted one with a tracker and it was recovered in Birmingham.”
In the case of the farm tenant, four men - the two who were wounded and two others suspected of taking part - were indeed arrested, but the victim and his wife were also charged. According to the Telegraph, the victimized couple was booked on “suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.”
Defend your home, go to jail
Without question, the case is likely to reignite a debate within Great Britain about a homeowner’s right to defend his property, the paper said. That debate initially began in the late 1990s after another farmer, Tony Martin, shot two burglars at his remote home. Martin shot at Brendan Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16, after they broke into his home.
He fired three times. Barras was struck in the back and although he managed to eventually escape through a window, he died moments later. Martin, meanwhile, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, which was later reduced to manslaughter and five years in prison. Nice of the court to cut him a break.
In 2009, millionaire businessman Munir Hussain fought back against a knife-wielding intruder with a metal pole and cricket bat; the burglar had tied up his family at their Buckinghamshire home.
For daring to defend himself and his family, Hussain was jailed for more than two years, though his attacker was spared prison.
Lucky for Hussain he eventually got an understanding judge who reduced his sentence to one year in jail, which was suspended.
What a guy.
Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html
This has been explained a million times, and I am tired of doing it, but I will do it again for both of you.
When there is an incident in the UK where a suspected burglar has been killed or badly injured, the procedure here is to ‘arrest’ everyone, in order to take them to the police station, question everyone and then release the homeowner if the police are satisfied, as they are in 99.99% of cases, that the self defence was within the law (which I will come on to in a moment).
Yes, we Brit freepers all agree that to Americans that sounds backward and even unfair, but that’s the way we do it. Arrest, question, sort out, release. I fully understand that its seems weird to Americans.
As to self-defence, contrary to myth, it is perfectly legal to defend yourself and home/family, yes even to the point of killing an attacker or burglar (as a Manchester man did last year to a burglar and was found to be perfectly within his rights to do so). The law since 2000 has in fact been strengthened not once but twice towards the VICTIM.
For all the headlines, there are and have been only a tiny, tiny amount of cases of where the homeowner has been found to have acted outside reasonable force. One was Tony Martin (which imo was a bad decision, and most Brits think that), another for example was an Asian family who tracked a burglar a mile from the home and then used a car to run him over again and again, and almost killed him)
It is a complete myth that the British are not allowed to defend body or home, and its also a myth that people in the UK go to jail to even defending body and home/family.
The couple were released with no charge.
The Martin case was a disgrace and most British people and all the UK/Irish freepers here have said so over the years on FR. Martin was convicted (wrongly imo) because he shot them in the back as they were running away, which the courts deemed not justifiable self-defence. The Hussein case was also one which I and every other Brit freeper (if memory serves) condemned. And we all condemned the stupidity of the case mentioned here.
That however does not change the fact that they are a tiny amount of cases, and do not support this myth that any Limey who defends self and home and family goes to jail. That is rubbish. 99% of incidents where a burglar is killed or injured do NOT end in the UK with anything for the homeowner but a pat on the back.
Just a few months ago, a man stabbed to death a burglar in Manchester and was found to be well within his rights of self-defence. That never gets mentioned except by myself and other British freepers because it dosent fit the crowing some Freepers wish to do re the UK.