DIY protection

Straw promises greater legal protection for 'have-a-go-heroes' - Independent Online Edition > UK Politics

Interesting sign to see the UK advocating DIY vigilante justice by reducing the potential for them to be criminally prosecuted as a result of harm to perpetrators. So long as the harm is proportionate to the threat that is. So if someone attacks you with their fists and you shoot them, that is not covered. But if someone attacks you with a knife and you knock them out, you are probably not going to get prosecuted. Even if he gets accidentally cut with his own knife in the tussle.

It is not as if the law expects people to lay down dead at any approach by a mugger - far from it - but it is interesting to observe that a leniency to those that take measures against intrusion, from the electrification of windows to walking around with a loaded gun.

It appears to be bringing the UK law perhaps more into alignment with what we have in New Zealand. Under Section 48 of the Crimes Act 1961, 'Everyone is justified in using, in defence of himself or another, such force as, in the circumstances as he believes them to be, it is reasonable to use'.

Hence, New Zealand films that are violent tend to have been more so than UK films of the same ilk. Maybe so. But DIY justice does lend itself to more interesting fiction as it makes it tougher for those who wish to commit crimes in public. Making that something that people will react to is an interesting social experiment, it seems to me that the law covers us Kiwis to rugby tackle every shoplifter - and perhaps we do to some extent. But as our society becomes more exposed to violence it seems self evident that this sharp edge may require more careful definition.