A businessman who fought off knife-wielding thugs after his family were threatened has been jailed for 30 months.
The case prompted renewed debate over the level of force that house-holders can use against raiders.
Munir Hussain, chairman of the Asian Business Council, was praised by a judge for his “courage” in defending his wife and three children from an attack — but then jailed for the violence of his response. One of his attackers was spared a jail sentence.
I don't know about you, but I find those opening paragraphs a bit misleading. Maybe that's why FatWhiteMan used this case as an example of how bad things are in England.
Actually, what happened is Mr. Hussain, quite courageously, got the intruders to flee the house. Then he and his brother and some other neighbors gave chase, caught one of them and beat him nearly to death with bats and metal pipes. The attacker who "was spared a jail sentence" is the one who'd had his brains bashed in and was incapable of going to court.
This is something which although very understandable, has nothing to do with protecting one's family or defending one's property. This is a case of taking the law into one's own hands and meting out justice, vigilante-style. The prosecution called it a "revenge attack."
Another thing illustrated by this case is one of the major problems with people arming themselves for home defense. In a dangerous situation when facing what could be lethal threat it is next to impossible to react properly. What Mr. Hussain did was a grievous departure from what is acceptable, but imagine how many lesser examples there are, especially the ones in which the gun owner shoots prematurely or unnecessarily. These dreadful examples must far outnumber the clean legitimate ones. It's plain common sense.
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What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Considering the UK coddles criminals more than the US, it's no surprise the people are going to pick up where the government fails. If the government continues to merely hand out slaps on the wrists (and sometimes even rewards) for crimes against people and their property, you're going to see an increase in frequency of "revenge attacks".
ReplyDeleteVengeance is a part of human nature and as much as we don't want it to be, it's also a function of our criminal justice system. When the criminal justice system fails at that function, the people will start handing out vengeance of their own.
It appears that the only thing that Munir Hussain did wrong is that he did not beat that thug to death and leave him. 20/20 hindsight shows there is no reason to involve the "authorities".
ReplyDeleteWhile this punishment (for the thug) would be severe and barbaric, it is the only option left since there can be no expectation of justice.
AztecRed, Thanks for providing a good analysis of the state of affairs.
ReplyDeleteVOR, Thanks for confirming the stereotype most people have of gun owners.
MikeB said:
ReplyDelete"VOR, Thanks for confirming the stereotype most people have of gun owners."
You should qualify that as "most liberal people". You certainly do not know what most people think.
Your statement just further demonstrates that liberals, like yourself, are intellectually bankrupt. Your collective groupthink will never let you realize this.
VOR said "Your collective groupthink will never let you realize this."
ReplyDeleteYou took the words right out of my mouth, man. I was just going to say that about gun owners.
This is one of your favorite tactics, isn't it? You accuse the others of what you know you are most guilty of. And if you do it fast enough and often enough, you start to believe your own nonsense.
Henigan's book, Lethal Logic is about exactly that, about demolishing the frequently repeated catch-phrases that the pro-gun crowd live by.
And here you come, saying the liberals do "groupthink."