Defending Your Own Home

[Y 2 Jake]

In the local paper today there is a story about a man who recieved a very heavy fine, and a couple of hundred hours of community service. Why? Defending his home. Turns out somebody broke in and tried to steal of this guy and his family. A move which the criminal would live to forget. He recieved a rather nasty kicking by all accounts. Serves him right as far as I'm concerned. I'd do the exact same. It's specifies that the man had his wife and three young gilrs in the house. Yet he's forced to pay the criminal compensation. This makes no sense to me. A man defending his home and his family gets treated worse that the criminal. It doesn't say what happened to the guy that broke in. But if he'd tried that shit in my house he wouldn't have got to the police station to complain.

[Shocky]

There are so many things wrong with what you posted on so many levels. It's another one of those cases that highlight everything that is going wrong with modern society as we know it. It's amazing how as a society we feel sorry for otherwise pathetic and terrible human beings and make excuses for people like that.

The ultimate problem lies with the legal system I'm afraid. We have gone from an ideal of innocent until proven guilty, to a concept of, if you have enough money to buy a good lawyer and come up with a good excuse, chances are you can do whatever you like. Plus, unless it was a jury, and judge that would make a ruling like this should be elected out of office as soon as their term was up.

I'm with Jake, someone breaks into my house, they probably aren't leaving without either a bullet in between the eyes, or a slug to the chest. That's how I feel about it. You are making a conscious decision to go into a private residence and break down any sense of security and privacy those people living in it once had. Getting the shit kicked out of him, please, this guy was lucky.

As I said, it's a sad state we are in as a society. There is a liberal magazine in my town that I read. These people were upset because of a judge making fun of and throwing the book essentially at a homeless man that broke into people's houses to wash his laundry. Is it sad the guy is homeless, it sure is. It's also sad that the bum can't go find a job and get a few quarters to wash his clothes in a public laundromat. Until people stop making excuses for criminals, situations like this will occur.

[Mighty NorCal]

Well shit, id be right there in the cell next to Shocky, and Jake, and this dude. I would ROCK a motherfucker if they tried to break into my house. How is a person supposed to know this dudes intentions?? He could be a serial killer, coming to murder you, and your entire family. Fuck that. And what about veterens, with post battle trauma?? A lot of veterens of our current war have terrible nightmares and dont sleep well at all, and wake up swinging and trying to defend themselves if started. If someone BREAKS INTO THEIR HOUSE its going to DEFINEATLY be on, off of nothing but natural reaction that they have been conditioned to do. Then what?? Do you fine that guy?? Fucking disgusting.

[Italian MVP]

Yeh its pretty stupid in my opinion. You can blame the legal system for this. Its the same as when a criminal or robber for ect, comes into your house and falls down your stairs, They can sue you for it! But what you going to do? It doesnt look like its going to change and i would have done the same thing if i was in that situation. What else are you meant to do? Sit there and watch?

[Y 2 Jake]

It's pretty simple if you invade my house. If I'm on my own I will be considerably more lenient than I would be if my daughter was in the house with me. If I'm on my own I'd probably just use my golf clubs to snap your spine. I'd possibly even tak you to hospital after. 'Cus I'm nice like that. But if the child is in the house there is no real reason for me to not kill you. I higly doubt that the person breaking in will have informed many people where he is. So I'd have more to lose by just beating the shit out of him. May as well go the whole way. The guilt wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't have any. All I would need to do is think about what they could have potentially done to my kid.

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

Its as ridiculous as what school policies sometimes do. For some reason, some schools have the policy that if you're in a fight, even if you didn't start it, you're punished, even if you DIDN'T defend yourself. The very fact that you were in a fight, they think, warrants you to be punished. Now, I've only been in one fight in school, 5th grade, so since it was elementary school I wasn't punished at all as I didn't start it. However, I've actually known of two or three cases where someone was suspended and all they did was get punched and try to cover themselves up.

Why punish people that are only defending themselves? I don't understand it at all. That's a backhanded way of saying "let criminals do whatever they want". Cause really, how many times do they catch thieves unless they steal from a business? Nobody cares if its not involved in a business - unless its yourself, then you suddenly care beyond all.

The person that was defending themselves shouldn't get any type of punishment whatsoever. What's up with punishment, nowadays? People get sent to prison, where they can have a TV, video games, decent meals, exercise yard, blah blah blah...whatever happened to prison being something to FEAR? Hell, if there's no consequence to be scared of, you're not going to stop people from doing the wrong things. I'm not particularly a fan of Hammurabi's Code or anything, but shit, if you hear "Yo, Bill tried to steal a CD the other day and got his hand chopped off"...you sure as hell aren't going to try stealing! Lol.

[Italian MVP]

Its as ridiculous as what school policies sometimes do. For some reason, some schools have the policy that if you're in a fight, even if you didn't start it, you're punished, even if you DIDN'T defend yourself. The very fact that you were in a fight, they think, warrants you to be punished. Now, I've only been in one fight in school, 5th grade, so since it was elementary school I wasn't punished at all as I didn't start it. However, I've actually known of two or three cases where someone was suspended and all they did was get punched and try to cover themselves up.


Yeh same thing happened to my friend last year. This other idiot provoked him and all my friend did was tell him to back off, then this guy starts punching my friend up and he was just covering himself and protecting himself, which eventually got broken up and he and my friend both got suspended!

Where is the justice in that?? It doesnt make any sense and as i said before what are you meant to do? Just stand there and do jack about it and get urself hurt or killed?

[klunderbunker]

There was a very similar issue here in Lexington about two months ago. We have a city law called the castle law, meaning a man's home is his castle. This means that if a man's home is invaded, he has every right to defend it by any means necessecary. The issue was that a man had been hanging out with his buddy in front of his house drinking. He passed out in the truck and the other guy went into the house. The guy in the truck woke up and went to the wrong house. This was at about 4am, and the drunk guy started knocking and kicking on the door, screaming for his buddy to let him in. He kicked thee door so hard that it woke the owner, who shot the door, and the bullet went through, killing the drunk man. He is now facing murder charges. The debate is, was this manslaughter, or defending your property? To me, the man who shot was totally in the right here. If it's 4am and a stranger is kicking my door, I'm doing whatever I can to defend my house, property and family. I don't own a gun or a large knife, but I'd have the Louisville Slugger baseball bat I have pulled back ready to swing. If someone is invading your property, I'd say you have every right to defend yourself to the fullest extent that you can. As Norcal, Shocky and Jake said, they'd be in a prison cell that night, and I'd be right there next to them.

[Sparky]

its simple you enter someones house without permission u deserve what you get. the Law and order anywhere regarding house invasions are stupid. it reminds me of the guy that broke into a house and broke his leg by tripping over a skateboard that was in the hall way he sued the people who's house he was breaking into and won wtf?? im just like everybody who has posted so far if someone enters my house when my brother's or sister or mum are home they better hope they have good health insurance And a mobile phone becouse he wont be using mine to ring an ambulance. how do you know what he is doing in your house he could be planning on doing anything to anyone we should have a right in our own homes to protect our home and family.

[Father:_Polley]

why should the law protect the rights of an individual breaking into a house, committing a crime and suffering the consequences of it? In my mind that person lost all rights to legal protection the second they acted on entering a house with the intent to steal something you've worked hard for. I mean, if you're wanting to rob someone, you have to deal with the consequences of those actions.

In other areas, you lose you're right to sue if you are somewhere you have no right to be, so why not in burglary cases? It's ridiculous that a legal system places more emphasis on the rights of a scumbag thief than on someone who contributes to society in a positive way.
If it happened to me, I'd be joining that little cell group because I'd have smashed an ornament over the guys head and would have no regrets.

[HBK-aholic]

It's a lod of shit in my opinon. It's in the same that you can be charged with assualt, GBH, manslaughter etc, when protecting yourself from being mugged or assaulted yourself. What are you supposed to do? Lay there and let them kill you? And then if you've successfully defended yourself you're the one that gets arrested and possibly put in jail.

If someone was breaking into my house, I'd sure as hell want my dad to kill them or injure them enough so that there was no way they could do anything to me, or take any of our stuff. If he's going to come into my house he deserves every last thing he gets. And should be considered lucky he isn't dead.

[kieran_devlin]

They tried to steal and you had no choice but to stop them doing it. Sure killing a person for that would be a little harsh but if you had to beat them to stop them FAIR DOOS.

I think that the person who did the kicking in should be obviously looked at and checked to see if it was a one time thing or whatever but to the most point if you have no choice then what else can you do other than allow it? Im not on the waggon that i would enjoy it obviously it would be a last ditch thing or no other reasonable choice thing.

[Frank the Frowner]

It reminds me of a case that happened in the States a couple of years ago where the homeowner defended his home against a burglar, but the burglar got out of it alive. He sued the homeowner for damages and actually won. There have also been cases where a burglar fell through a window, sued for damages, and won... and a case where a burglar got locked in the homeowner's garage (they were away on vacation) and won.

As far as I'm concerned, if a burglar comes into your house, you pretty much have to kill them in order to ensure they won't go ahead and file a lawsuit. The American judicial system is so backwards-ass that you're better off killing the guy. All you have to say is that you feared for your safety.

As crazy as Texas is, they have something that should really be enacted in all 50 states... The Castle Law.

The castle law gives Texans added protection from lawsuits by injured attackers or their families.

The castle law says the use of force or deadly force is presumed to be reasonable if someone unlawfully and with force enters an occupied home, business or car.

"You hear someone stealing something off your front porch. You come out there with a gun, and they're running off. It's nighttime. The law in Texas allows you to shoot them," said former Dallas County prosecutor Toby Shook.

In 25 years, I've never known a Harris County court to prosecute a homeowner or businessman for killing a burglar or robber," Harris County Assistant District Attorney Bill Delmore told legislators. "We don't do that."