SLIM":16jg8t8j said:
i once found myself in a situation .........
a certain individual thought my face a good place to rest his clenched fist
SMASH , once
please dont do that again
SMASH , twice
please sir , no more
SMASH thrice
SMASH , me this time (once and only once)
spent the next year in and out of court , looking at poss jail time , eventually thrown out
your idea of reasonable and the laws is a very different thing
TAKE CAUTION
I cannot emphasise enough how accurate this reply is...
...four years ago I went through exactly the same rigmarole after getting attacked on my own driveway by five drunken youths at quarter to midnight on my return home from work, simply because I didn't have a light for a cigarette when they asked!
I faced the loss of my licence, my livelyhood and my home for simply refusing to let some local scum kick me to death outside my own home! I was arrested, de-arrested (I refused to let them arrest me at 9AM on a Sunday morning four weeks after the event!), re-arrested, charged, finger printed, DNA sampled, held in Eastbourne Custodial Centre all day, you name it I had to go through it.
The majority of the Coppers I came into contact with were very sympathetic and agreed that they would have done exactly the same in the circumstances, but their hands were tied by the current Legal System.
After reducing the charges from
ABH to
Aggravated Assult to
Assult to
Affray (that last had me worried because they can convict you for just about anything on that charge!
) they eventually dropped all the charges, not least because I refused to allow them to 'Let me off with a Caution' because that would have still meant the loss of my licence!
A good Legal Aid Solicitor and a very helpful local Copper saw me through the whole legal minefield
The moral of which story is...
...if you see someone nicking your bike challenge them, from a distance, but if that has no effect - let them get on with it; it's just property, and hopefully you've got it insured?
The other side of the coin, of course, is that just 25 years ago I got applauded by the Plod on more than one occasion for taking the law into my own hands when the situation demanded it - once in a crowded pub 'restraining' an oik who had just stabbed a friend of mine! The Chief Superintendent walked up to me in the bar afterwards, looked me firmly in the eye and said 'Well it looks like someone has already dealt with him doesn't it...'
...just as well too, because he only got a few hours Community Service when convicted!
My how times have changed... :?