By 15 year old criminals who surrounded her, snatched her walkman-radio, taunted her with it and ran off.
Bastards.
I see kids in the park buzzing dog-walkers on stolen mopeds that end up burnt.
Kids who smash the windows of the cars parked in my street.
Teens who set fire to the abandoned vehicles and then ask the firemen what’s going on when they eventually arrive
Bastards who’s parents my tax dollars are supporting throwing fire extinguisers and ladders from a building site onto cyclists on the canal.
Bastards. I hate teenagers. It now seems they are ALL guilty of something.
Talking to the police yesterday I discover pepper spray and CS gas is classed as a firearm.
I can’t even defend myself without breaking the law.
WTF.
You should see how pissed off SHE is.
Or perhaps not.
It might be just the CS gas (tear gas) part of it that’s restricted; perhaps plain pepper spray would be all right. My husband is a postal worker and is issued plain pepper spray to deal with dogs, but he rarely carries it due to the danger of blowback that can occur if there’s some wind or breeze out. And I’m very sorry to hear about what happened to your wife, flapcats.
Why do you hate teenagers? Just because the ones who robbed your wife were jerks?(And they certainly were!) And how old are you flapcats? I know a lot of great teenagers, and I’m, um, cough, forty-seven. Please try not to think of all kids as bad just because you are(quite justifiably) upset.
Airdisk & Baker - I do not normally make sweeping, all encompassing statements and was furious when I posted. Aplogies to nice teens, I do know all kids ain’t bad really.
Since I moved to London… (UK: where pepper spray & CS gas can put you in prison) The only teens I see are breaking and burning things, the police can’t chase them when they’re on nicked mopeds (upto three of them, all helmetless) - because if the kids fall off they’ll sue. It’s ridiculous & it’s getting worse.
However, to be fair - I rephrase: I hate teen gangs. Specifically the one that robbed my wife.
As for flapcats Stinkpalm: See “Aunt Hlida’s Flapcats” a cartoon by Gary Larson.
Not really, you can use ‘reasonable force’ which is a yardstick between slap and manslaughter.
Someone attacks you and you kill them with a lucky blow from your keys - you’re more likely to end up in jail.
Hold up a post office with a shotgun but get knifed and killed by the postie: postie may become hero, as long as the knife was only there to open parcels, cut string etc.
AFAIK You can’t carry a weapon at all. 2 years for a knife, don’t know how much for a firearm.
You can be imprisoned for carrying an imitation gun also, some pop gangsta was jailed for waving a BB gun at someone. Water pistols that look like guns - ie black plastic - arn’t popular either.
A guy was shot and killed by the police for brandishing a lighter that looked like a little silver pistol (though fair enough, it could have been a real gun and they couldn’t take the chance)… Air rifles musn’t be fired within 50m of a road either.
airdisc, he’s talking about a lot of teenagers doing some very bad shit.
Just curious, though, flapcats: are there any law-abiding teens in your community? Or (as is probable) are they all either being corrupted by peer pressure, or themselves subject to harassment if they don’t join in?
AFAIR, rapper “Asher D”, from the So Solid Crew, was jailed for possession of a pellet gun that had been illegally modified to fire live ammunition.
The subject of self-defence in the UK has been extensively discussed in a couple of threads recently… basically, it is legal, provided reasonable and proportionate force is used. What’s reasonable and proportionate? Up to the courts.
I can’t imagine that shooting petty thieves, or even threatening them with a gun, would be considered proportionate. For that matter, I’m not sure that being armed would help much… the current surge in street crime is at least partially fuelled by the fact that people are going around carrying small, highly portable, highly resellable items (like mobile phones, or your wife’s walkman, flapcats). Weapons (guns, tasers, pepper sprays) fall into that category - I suspect that carrying one is more likely to make you a target than it is to help.
I think the situation will adjust itself; law enforcement will get targeted at this specific area, and manufacturers will make phones etc. that are secured against unauthorised use, thus lowering the appeal for thieves. So, the young punks will find something else anti-social to amuse them.
If it’s any help, flapcats, I do sympathise - I’ve had run-ins with young criminals myself. (And, as a result, I found out that the police take them a lot more seriously, and come down on them a lot harder, than our wonderful tabloid press like to make out. The odds are that your wife’s assailants will get what’s coming to them.)
Rilchiam, read his OP. He said “all teenagers”. Though granted, I now know that he was just pissed off (and I can see why he would be) at his wife being robbed.
That’s weird. Pepper spray is illegal. Pretty much any way to defend yourself is illegal. So, theoretically, if someone tries to rape a woman, and the woman stops the rapist by using pepper spray, the woman can go to jail?
Today in my Media Law class, a girl told us about her manager who was charged with assault when he tried to stop a shoplifter. They saw her steal a pair of Oakleys, some bathers and a top, then slip out (this was before they had sensors installed) so he chased her. They ran outside where she got into a car, and when he grabbed her arm to try and prevent her from leaving, she turned around and socked him one. She filed assault against the manager for grabbing her arm and he had to go to court and pay a $200 fine.
Because of the incident, their store brought in some experts to inform the sales team of what they could and couldn’t do in a situation like that. They can only detain the shoplifters, but you have to wonder how that’s possible without using some degree of force.
