Richard Osborn-Brooks. Yahoo.
A 78 year old man has been arrested in London after stabbing a home invader. Yahoo News. Richard Osborn-Brooks responded to two men breaking into his home, one of whom was armed with a screwdriver. A scuffle broke out and one of the attackers was fatally injured. The attacker fled the scene and was later found and brought to a hospital and died there. Witnesses claim that the attacker that died had a "knife wound". For their part, Osborn-Brooks' neighbors are rallying around him and saying he deserves a medal, not a prison sentence. Osborn-Brooks is out on bail until May.
My Comment:
Not often I get this disgusted with a story from the UK. I come to expect nanny state BS from there but this is so over the top that I can't hardly believe what I am reading. Arresting a 78 year old man who defended himself from a home invasion? That's way worse than what the actual criminals did in this case! An assault and home invasion pales into throwing a man defending himself into jail for something like this, especially since it looks like this is an unintentional death.
As an American this is almost inconceivable to me. In my state we have the Castle Doctrine where if you are in your home you can use deadly force and have no duty to retreat. But even if we didn't this would be a clear case of self defense under our laws. Someone breaking into a house, getting into a fight with you, while armed, pretty much means that there isn't a jury in America that would convict you or a prosecutor stupid enough to file charges or even a cop dumb enough to arrest you. The law would be on your side and nobody would fault you for what you had to do.
Apparently that is not the case in the UK. Though the UK does have self defense on the books, and even has a version of castle law, the legal boundaries are not anywhere near as clear. It is possible that Osborn-Brooks could be imprisoned if the jury doesn't buy a claim of self defense.
That would be a massive miscarriage of justice. If there is one rule, sacred over all others, it is the right to self defense. One of the most basic functions of living organisms is self preservation. To blame a man for fighting back and killing someone, in this case probably not on purpose, is as stupid as blaming a dog who bites his owner after he gets beaten or the bear that mauls a person harassing her cubs.
This exact scenario playing out in the United States is a major reason why I am so supportive for gun rights. You see, though I like guns and think they are fun and cool, I also think they are the best thing for self defense. And I have always thought that the gun control lobby's ultimate goal is to criminalize and stigmatize self defense as a concept. They may hate guns but the idea that people could take action to protect themselves seems offensive to them on a deeply personal level. So they ban guns and eliminate self defense laws and create a country where you can't even think about fighting back, against criminals or the government.
The UK seems to be a good example of how that would work in practice. First they banned most firearms and made the ones left extremely regulated and forbidden for self defense. Once the UK population was without firearms, the UK went on to extremely regulate knives to the point where you have to show ID to buy a plastic spork. Now it appears that even using a knife (or a screwdriver you recovered from an assailant) can get you arrested. It's a great example of the slippery slope in action.
I also have to point out that similar home invasions are rare in the United States. They do happen but not anywhere nearly frequency as in the UK, at least this kind of scenario. From what I understand, it's extremely common in the UK for break ins to happen when people are at home. In America criminals do everything they can to avoid doing that, unless they are there for rape, assault, or murder, because they know they risk getting shot. I know which of those scenarios I'd prefer. Having to fight it out with home invaders is a much more distressing situation then having your home broken into without you there. Especially if you don't have any weapons to fight back (of course I always have a weapon in my home).
If there is any silver lining about this it seems that the people in the UK are just as outraged. Everyone in the neighborhood seemed to love this guy and all of them say he should be let go. The outrage goes beyond his neighborhood as many Brits are signing petitions and demanding that he not be put on trial. Time will tell how effective these measures are but I personally hope they succeed. It should never be a crime to defend yourself from home invaders.
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