Entertainment For Lively Minds
Hang 'em and flog em
Well, some little fucker tried to break into our house last night; obviously you can no longer have a nice car and park it in front of your own house. Tamper proof locks worked but we will now have to fork out for a security gate on the back and new door handles. Insurance went up this year, car & home, so I am becoming increasingly disillusioned about the law abiding life I do lead. Two very thick time serving plods came round, usual platitudes about how they are under manned, covering a big beat etc. They actually admitted that most of these cases are solved by pure luck. From now on I will not be offering tea & biscuits; it is is enough I contribute to their salaries without offering catering also. CSI came round, not like on the telly. On the upside I was snapped doing 35 in 30; of course I will get done, pay the fine and suffer the increased premiums. In short, be a fuck-wit, don't work, dont pay your way, leech from society, commit petty crime, don't have nice things, don't want the best for your family....you are unlikely to get caught!
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Sorry to hear it
I've been burgled and it was horrible, so you have my sympathies.
I have also been burgled.
Horrible experience.
You have my sympathies.
I too feel your pain, Woody...
...I was burgled a few weeks ago (end of June). Brand new laptop, a wad of cash, a few electronic items, FPO's handbag (inc purse/cards), my wallet (all cards)... and we were going on hols in a few days, so the lack of plastic replacements in time was awkward.
But I guess it's ALL awkward and annoying and inconvenient. You're probably feeling like you're wanting to smash the bastard's face in right now. All I can say is try and focus on how much worse it might have been (if more things had been taken, if someone had attacked you or yours in the process etc). Strangely, I was able to take a lot of comfort from the fact that my guitar - which I couldn't afford to have replaced, which wasn't covered on insurance - was walked past by the scumbag who broke into my place.
It's all a drag but, honestly Woody, it's worth trying to focus on the 'positives' and try and draw a line under it mentally. Mrs H was quite badly shaken up by our incident (early hours of the morning, we were in the house, not quite asleep at the time). Could always have been worse. Deal with your home security and put it down to experience.
Thanks
Last year they were successful and broke in while we were upstairs, saw them reversing my wifes car off the drive. Fitted anti-tamper locks on the back so they could not repeat the same trick, they had a real good go though. I do try to stay postitive but I am a Yorkshireman....My wife was shaken also, she put a brave face on and I know how much she loves her car.
It feels a bit odd...
...me being the bloke with a positive message! (I seem to be a bit of a glumster these days in general terms...) But I can certainly speak from experience in saying that allowing yourself to get eaten up with anger at a wrong, or series of wrongs, is ultimately no good. Better to cut your losses - literally or otherwise - and draw that line under it. Karma, one hopes, will get these kind of people at some point.
I too had CSI Toytown come around (no harm in the fellow but, as he put it himself, "we're not like the TV"). The local constable was surprisingly chipper and professional. But both referred, at separate times, obliquely to "a known criminal living in the area". At which point I said "You mean the guy at number __ ______ Avenue?" To which they raised eyebrows and said, "Yes, that's him". It was just a guess on my part - a friend lived next door to this guy, and has endured endless late-night scenes, affrays on his doorstep and strings of dodgy characters paying visits at unusual hours. A 5 year old could work out his occupation. Thankfully he's 'moved on' in the past few weeks. Possibly with Mrs H's laptop and my wallet among his ill-gotten gains.
I, too, have been burgled.
Didn't bother me too much and the scrote, who was caught, got two years. Which seemed a bit harsh.
I admire your sypathies Lenny
I dont know if the scrote that did my house ever got caught, but I wouldnt have felt sorry if he had got hung drawn & quartered.
My Liberal sympathies were well & truly tested.
I would quite happily have boiled him (or her) in oil.
The poor are twice as likely to be burgled
as the rich, the poor fear burglary more, and they are more likely to suffer from depression as a result of home intrusion. For me, therefore, it seems perfectly consistent with my own liberal instincts that housebreakers should be given a minimum five year sentence from first offence, and that every aggravated burglary should be rewarded with ten years in the clink - no parole.
Do it twice, and you should be made to swallow the key.
That's how you protect the most vulnerable.
I'd agree
as long as, while in prison, all such offenders were forced to absorb an education and/or learn skills of use in the job market before release. A "civics" education might also be good.
Otherwise, it seems a long term negative to keep people inactive inside the best possible crime academy imaginable, and a place absolutely rolling in easily-available Class As.
Agreed
As long as they work for it. If we and our children now have to pay 9k a year for a decent education, I don't see why they should get it for free.
They should pay back to the
They should pay back to the cost of their prison stay particularly if they have benefitted from it. I would also take away the benefits of anyone caught doing a serious offence; we have to break this cycle of multi-generational unemployment and the crime it leads to. I have always quite enjoyed reading the ex-cons writing in the Guardian but, to be honest, I now find it a bit distasteful, what must the victims family think? I genuinely think we are a soft touch in this country. By the way, I have never voted tory, bought the daily mail etc.
Hear hear
Whenever a recidivist criminal is given a community sentence, the Polly Toynbees of this world return to their cosy piles and open up an agreeable bottle of red as a toast to their compassion and magnanimity.
Meanwhile, those who share the same postcode as the aforementioned criminal will continue to live in fear of crime.
Nobody in this country has done more to blight the lives of the poor than the liberal intelligentsia.
Edit: Feel free to debate this point, but try and go beyond the tired 'Daily Mail-reader' jibes. Otherwise I shall thwack you with a wet plimsoll.
Personal anecdotes - rightwing crooks
Over the years, my interaction with individuals one would identify as anti-social (minor criminals, major criminals, and guys who would be criminal if they could work up the nerve) has produced overwhelming anecdotal evidence of 'conservative' political leanings. I can't speak for the UK, but in North America conservatives are positioned as the champion of the small guy, the guy who wasn't smart enough to go to university (or even secondary school) but had to make a go of it on guts and determination. This appeals to the 'entrepreneurs' who make a living on petty larceny, boosting cars and selling phony credit cards.
This unsurprisingly produces an interesting paradox - a social underclass that actively, vocally supports authoritarian politicians who would seek to cause them the greatest harm. This is what soft 'liberals' miss entirely, that the people they often seek to help think of them as weak, cowardly and foolish. One should never overlook the fact that in the 60s and 70s, the Hells Angels were objectively pro-war, and thought poorly of the peace movement and the hippies in general.
Slightly off tangent, but
Slightly off tangent, but Vanessa Redgrave supporting the gypsies/travellers (who don't travel). Would she feel as compassionate if they parked up in front of her pile? In fact she could probably put them up for a while. The rest of us are too busy earning a living to worry about such matters.
Nightmare
I feel for you Woody. Horrible. Hope they catch the bastards and throw the book at them.
Oh, and Woodface
Sympathies. It sucks, and the inconsistent justice sucks even more.
Sadly, policing (and much of the justice system) seems to be driven by (a) resource problems; and (b) the apparent need to satisfy ill-conceived quotas or targets for everything. It seems to be a public sector disease, unfortunately.
Mr Woodface
Have some sympathy for PC Plod please.
My little bro' is a polisman, and they are:
Undermanned.
Constrained by laws as to do what they can or can't do.
Overwhelmed by paperwork... Me brother has stated that for every "little" crime that he investigates, some 80% of the crime investigating time is spent on filing reports, so they have to prioritise.
So an attempted theft/burgalry has to be very low on their radar.
It should not be so, but until proper funding is initiated, that's the way it will be.
The Good Policemen- and there are heaps about- are frustrated and demoralised by the fact that they can't do what they are paid to do, and that's police!
A good example happened to my brother a few years ago.
There was a nuatical accident that my brother was called to... he personally and single handedly saved the lives of three people...
During the post mortem, as it were, of the incident, two concurrent investigations took place: One was to praise Danny (for that is his name)for his actions, the other was to find out whether he acted irresponsibly and without due concern of established procedures, laid down by The Law. Oh, and did he carry out a proper risk assesment at the time?
Thankfully on this case he got a commendation, and a medal, from HRH Lizzie, but it was a close run thing.
The Polis have a difficult job, Woody.
The Police.
Well said geacher. My best mate (of almost 30 years) is a copper, a bloody good one, but he feels frustrated that most of his time is spent on procedural paperwork & not nicking scrotes.
Your brother sounds like a damn good egg & a damn good copper to me.
I commend him
Contrast this with the DC who rang my wife with a crime number, scared her half to death by saying they will probably come back and will not hesitate to put a brick through the patio doors. Mmm, very brave, if they know they are coming back, why don't they catch them? Ok, I am being very simplistic but not all coppers are saints etc. Why do they have to all this paperwork? Perhaps they are paying for the past crimes of their corrupt forebears? I know a few coppers, one of which told me how they would take bets as to how far they could travel outside their patch within a shift, one guy went as far as France.
Woodface
My total sympathies. I'm aware that nothing I, or anyone else, writes here is gonna bring one jot of comfort, but you really do have my sympathies. These people are scumbags.