I squash the ones that aren’t true.
And you are lying about it being just me(in a thread where Winniesboy has also posted, the irony). In previous threads on UK self defence, Winnie, Vanders9 and even our Anglo-Aussie friend Naturalman1975 have all posted about it. Either to back me or I post to back them.
As to your newspaper links, this has been explained a million times, and I am tired of doing it, but I will do it again for 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.
Btw, I myself was the victim of a burglary-assault in Sept 2008, and defended myself with violence (punches, kicks and neck restraint), and I never even went to the police station. My statement was taken, and I was left to lock my door and clean up my cut hand (I was slashed across the hand with a small screwdriver). In fact I was told by the police that I could have used MORE violence to defend myself if necessary!.
My case even made the local papers (the story is on the net), as my offender did eight more break-ins and got 44 months jail. He is now back in prison for attempted murder.
