Those Danes know how to treat criminals. No hospital stay and rehabilitation before the court appearance for the bad guys over there.AN axe-wielding Muslim fanatic who tried to butcher a Danish cartoonist in his home was carried into court on a stretcher yesterday to be charged with attempted murder.
The 28-year-old Somali, said to have links to al-Qaeda, was also accused of trying to kill a police officer who shot and wounded him outside Kurt Westergaard's home.
Westergaard, 75, has been a target of extremists since he drew a cartoon in 2005 of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban.
The cartoon was one of a series which outraged the Islamic world.
Westergaard was at home with his five-year-old grand-daughter in the city of Aarhus late on Friday when the attacker broke in.
The house is fortified but the man smashed a window to get in. He told Westergaard in broken English that he had come to kill him.
Westergaard fled with his granddaughter to a "panic room" in the bathroom. He said the attacker yelled "Revenge!" and "Blood!" and smashed the door with the axe.
The cartoonist pressed an alarm button to alert police. Officers arrived within two minutes and confronted the axeman outside.
Now there's another interesting concept, "the panic room." Of course that could never work in America where people are into that old stand-yer-ground mentality.
What's your opinion? Would fortifying one of the rooms in the house and equipping it with means to communicate with he local police be a possible answer to protecting yourself and your family at home? Or would you prefer to be armed to the teeth?
What do you think about the blasphemy charges some in the Islamic world have raised against this cartoonist? Those Muslims are pretty severe judges and they definitely don't have a sense of humor. Is this the case that's raised questions of a United Nations prohibition against blasphemy?
Please leave a comment.
"What's your opinion? Would fortifying one of the rooms in the house and equipping it with means to communicate with he local police be a possible answer to protecting yourself and your family at home? Or would you prefer to be armed to the teeth?"
ReplyDeletePrebuilt panic rooms usually start at several thousand dollars while having an existing room converted into a panic room can cost even more.
For an American, it's easier and cheaper to buy a gun, ammo, and basic training.
But if you're a Dane, buying a gun will probably be even more complex and expensive than building a safe room, if buying a gun is even possible.
Ideally, you should have both. Good home security is a system that should comprise of as many sub-systems as you can afford: Security lighting, steel core exterior doors, security windows, alarm system, firearms, and a panic room.
"Westergaard fled with his granddaughter to a 'panic room' in the bathroom. He said the attacker yelled 'Revenge!' and 'Blood!' and smashed the door with the axe. 'I feared for my grandchild,' he told Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that had commissioned the cartoon. 'But she did great.'"
ReplyDeleteThat is not at all what other media is reporting:
Panic Room Saved Artist
"He did not have time to collect the child from the living room before locking himself into a 'panic room', a specially fortified bathroom. He said the assailant had shouted 'swear words, really crude words' and shrieked about 'blood' and 'revenge', as he smashed the axe in vain against the bathroom door."
Now that sounds more like European self defense: Hide in the bathroom and call the police while you leave your kindergartner to the axe wielding nut job. Wouldn't it be better just to shoot the bastard?
FWM, That would certainly change our impression of the famous cartoonist.
ReplyDeleteImpossible, only guns cause crime. Get rid of guns and violent crime doesn't happen......oh wait....
ReplyDeleteMikeb30200:
ReplyDeleteObviously it would be better to arm all REAL Dutch citizens and just not let teh sortabrownkrazee emigrate to Holland.
Would fortifying one of the rooms in the house and equipping it with means to communicate with he local police be a possible answer to protecting yourself and your family at home? Or would you prefer to be armed to the teeth?
ReplyDeleteYes to both.
Lots of armed self-defense trainers advocate picking a defensible room with locks on the door, and waiting there with a gun until help arrives. If the ratio of threat level to income supports it, reinforcing the room is also recommended.
Lots of armed self-defense trainers advocate picking a defensible room with locks on the door, and waiting there with a gun until help arrives.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what I'd do (and what you should do if possible)
Obviously you do what's necessary to make sure your family is safe, which IMO means getting them all to a central, defensible location.
I don't see why this is an "either / or" situation. I would prefer to have a fortified room AND be armed. I mean how many of us really have interior doors that absolutely cannot be broken down by an intruder?
"Lots of armed self-defense trainers advocate picking a defensible room with locks on the door, and waiting there with a gun until help arrives. If the ratio of threat level to income supports it, reinforcing the room is also recommended."
ReplyDeleteSevesteen is absolutely correct. Many of the self defense instructors I know, as well as those on the defense oriented television shows, do advocate a safe room that all family members can retreat to. They also recommend a reinforced door and a cell phone in case alarm and phone lines are cut.
Further, nearly every one of them recommends being armed so that you can protect your family should the door be breached or, more importantly, if you need to get to family members that cannot protect themselves.
Or, you could just lock yourself in the bathroom and piss yourself while your 5 year old slows down the attacker. Also known as the European method.