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| Originally Posted by Bren Tierney Those who break the law - as John Locke, one of the earliest proponents of natural rights, pointed out - do not have the same rights as those who keep it.
A burglar who invades another's property, said the great 17th-century philosopher of liberty, loses his automatic right to the same legal protection that is due to the honest citizen: his decision to violate the rights of another means that he has put himself outside the standards and norms that entitle an individual to assume that any violence against him will be viewed by the authorities as a criminal offence.
British law needs to be changed to recognise that obvious truth. A law that assumed that a home-owner was entitled to take whatever measures he felt necessary to repel an intruder would not only be fair and just. |
Absolutely agree. I do believe I should have the right to defend myself and my property against someone who has entered my home against my wishes. And no, they should have zero rights to compensation - they have forfeited that right in my view.
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| Originally Posted by Bren Tierney It would also dramatically cut the rate at which homes were burgled. |
Not so sure about that bit though. My reservations are for the following reasons:
1) Would this legislation diminish the number of burglars / intruders - perhaps, perhaps not. Would it make those who did offend more likely to carry weapons when doing so? I think it probably would. I suspect that although the Americans are cited as having lower rates of breaking and entering, those which do occur are probably more likely to be exceptionally violent for this reason. This is certainly the case in South Africa. A friend of mine had her home broken into there whilst she and her fiance were asleep. She woke up to find a man stealing things in their bedroom.... paralysed by shock and fear, she found herself unable to move or scream. The policeman who visited them afterwards said that this probably saved their lives - had the burglar known that they were awake they would probably have been murdered.
2) Is a strong bloke breaking into my property going to be able to wrestle a weapon off me and potentially use it on me? Probably.
3) Is it not more likely that - rather than do an honest day of work - the scum who do this will change their plan of attack, and come up with ways to target empty homes or even more vulnerable people?
So I suspect that the articles above rather over-simplify the problem. These people are the dregs of humanity, they should have no rights, but unfortunately they have no moral scruples either. My above reservations aside, I have to come down on the side which says I have a right to defend myself and my property - with all force required. And if the intruder doesn't like that - well they shouldn't come in in the first place then.