Comments on: No Country For Old Women

By: Jeff Hall

Jeff Hall — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:53:58 +0000

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.

By: mojo

mojo — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:54:57 +0000

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.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:48:09 +0000

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

By: inawarminister

inawarminister — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:48:00 +0000

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

By: inawarminister

inawarminister — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:44:43 +0000

What.

By: fozzy

fozzy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 05:25:51 +0000

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.

By: dbt1949

dbt1949 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:08:02 +0000

What a bitch. Stupid olde people.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:56:13 +0000

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.

By: Paul Baxter

Paul Baxter — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:53:49 +0000

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.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:43:46 +0000

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.