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No Country For Old Women

Oct 2, 2009
By .
Irksome

Renate Bowling, a 71 year old widow who escaped to the free world from East Germany, is now a common criminal.  She had the poor judgment to "poke" a 17 year old hooligan who was part of a gang throwing rocks at her house.  While in America or any other sane country Ms. Bowling would have been let off with a warning, Ms. Bowling is not so fortunate.

She has the bad luck to live in the world's worst nanny state.

The Crown Prosecution Service today defended its decision to take legal proceedings against a 71-year-old woman who prodded a 17-year-old youth in the chest.

Renate Bowling, of Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire, confronted the boy in the street after stones were thrown at her home.

The disabled widow, who walks with a steel frame, said she thought it was a "joke" when police arrived at the scene and arrested her for jabbing the teenager with her finger.

While the Crown, which undoubtedly prosecuted this vicious criminal for the sake of the children, claims there was no evidence that the youth who received this vicious jabbing threw the rock, it ignores Ms. Bowling's own account, in which she saw the boy standing in the street, in the direction from which the rocks had been thrown, and later hiding behind a wall.  Ms. Bowling had to toddle out with her walker to confront the little monster.

As we wrote a couple of months ago, discussing a very similar case:

Funny, it wasn’t too long ago that Mrs. Lake wouldn’t have had to strike young hooligans who vandalize war memorials. The police would be doing it for her, and deservedly so. While it would probably set a bad example to actually give her a medal, the most she should have gotten is a strong warning, delivered with a smile.

Shame on the child’s parents, for allowing their son to run wild like a beast in the streets, and shame on the prosecutors who brought charges against her.

What sort of country raises entitled young hooligans, who abuse old ladies by pelting them with stones and calling them "German whores"?  Hooligans who run to the police when they're beaten up by the old ladies? What sort of country tolerates, encourages, and condones this sort of behavior?

It's a good thing that prosecutors in the UK can exercise their discretion.  Otherwise there might be some serious injustice going on.

Last 5 posts by Patrick

10 Comments
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10 Comments

  1. Ken  •  Oct 2, 2009 @1:43 pm

    You're quite right that their statement that there was "no evidence" is wrong because it ignores her own testimony, which was evidence. I'm not convinced that the droog was actually throwing stones. But even if she's just an old harridan who came out to shout at a young lout for noisy soccer, it's a ridiculous decision to prosecute her, smacking of Nanny-State pwecious-cildren-brain.

  2. Paul Baxter  •  Oct 2, 2009 @1:53 pm

    Honest to God, from the stories I've heard from a variety of sources, there is no country I know of with a more perverted justice system than the UK. Plenty of countries are more corrupt, but I don't know of any which go so far to protect the guilty and punish the innocent.

  3. Patrick  •  Oct 2, 2009 @1:56 pm

    So much nonsense of this sort could be relieved if only some government would adopt Mickey Kaus's idea of a Department of Fucking Perspective.

    I'd vote for any politician who supported it.

  4. dbt1949  •  Oct 2, 2009 @3:08 pm

    What a bitch. Stupid olde people.

  5. fozzy  •  Oct 2, 2009 @10:25 pm

    When I was involved in a little youthful mischief, involving a carton of eggs and the crabby old man's house down the street I also got caught. The old timer grabbed me, my weasel friends took off and he held on until the cops arrived. A lifetime of work in the local mine had left him really strong for a man in his late seventies and he had no trouble holding my arm and giving me a ding on the ear. The coppers didn't arrest him, it didn't even occur to me to complain that he had 'assaulted' me. I got a lecture from the old man, a lecture from the cops and when they brought me home I got much more than a lecture from my Dad, and a winter of clearing the snow for that mean old guy down the road. No court cases for anyone, no lawyers, and no criminal records, but it seems more justice.

  6. inawarminister  •  Oct 4, 2009 @7:44 am

    What.

  7. inawarminister  •  Oct 4, 2009 @7:48 am

    Also, how the hell prodding someone = court? The kid got a big, influential father? Wow… Do wonder to our POV at humanity…

  8. Bob  •  Oct 5, 2009 @6:48 am

    Have you seen the woman's finger? Maybe that thing is like a dagger.

  9. mojo  •  Oct 5, 2009 @9:54 am

    If the police won't protect the citizenry, the citizens will find someone who will. Usually, that means criminals (protection is worth paying for, sometimes) or vigilantes (do it yourself). Both choices are likely to lead to bad places.

  10. Jeff Hall  •  Oct 8, 2009 @6:53 pm

    Patrick, you are missing the key point to this story: the steel walking frame. If this woman didn't have a steel walking frame, she wouldn't have been able to get out to the curb to get to her victims. For that matter, even if she had crawled out to the sidewalk, she wouldn't have been able to stand up to poke the teenager in the chest.

    The British authorities knew, or should have known, that an old woman living alone was an inviting target for yobs throwing stones. They knew, or should have known, that allowing an old woman to legally possess a steel walking frame was putting those yobs at risk for a finger-poking assault. But their lax laws allowed her to hobble anywhere she felt like with impunity.

    Right-wing neanderthals might argue that steel walking frames serve to deter crime: but it's obvious to the enlightened mind that more steel walking frames means more victims of steel-walker crimes.