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Off Topic The Politics Thread

Discussion in 'Queens Park Rangers' started by Stroller, Jun 25, 2015.

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Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

Poll closed Jun 24, 2016.
  1. Stay in

    56 vote(s)
    47.9%
  2. Get out

    61 vote(s)
    52.1%
  1. bobmid

    bobmid Well-Known Member

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    What the **** are all these hypothetical killing scenarios about??? Cuckooooooo
     
    #74861
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  2. rangercol

    rangercol Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely.
    My conscience would be completely clear.
     
    #74862
  3. bobmid

    bobmid Well-Known Member

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    Blimey, we have a forum of killers!!!
     
    #74863
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  4. Steelmonkey

    Steelmonkey Well-Known Member

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    And that's the good guys
     
    #74864
  5. bobmid

    bobmid Well-Known Member

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    Just had an amazon delivery at the door, didnt know him at first, could have killed him! Luckily for us both it was just my coffee pods.
     
    #74865
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  6. Sooperhoop

    Sooperhoop Well-Known Member

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    They have a massive foothold in Africa, whilst we have been happy to get cheap clothing etc they have been using their booming economy to invest in countries with strategic benefits such as mining cobalt and other key minerals. Their 'loans' have massive default clauses meaning they can get easy access to such precious materials. They really have outflanked the West with this type of investment. With Russia being bankrupted as a pariah state and the US in a stupor they are well on their way to being The global superpower...
     
    #74866
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  7. Goldhawk-Road

    Goldhawk-Road Well-Known Member

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    And, for what it's worth, English Criminal law would absolve you both, because it would be self defence.
     
    #74867
  8. bobmid

    bobmid Well-Known Member

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    Happy days then.
     
    #74868
  9. Goldhawk-Road

    Goldhawk-Road Well-Known Member

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    Sure. Self defence is a long estabished and critical defence in the administration of justice.

    The law will take sides.
     
    #74869
  10. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    Far from being grateful for the efforts of five foreign secretaries and three prime ministers in allegedly trying for six years to free her from being a bargaining chip held by a medieval theocracy, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is rather churlish in her press conference, declining to give these people the credit they have claimed.

    Good on you Nazanin.
     
    #74870

  11. Staines R's

    Staines R's Well-Known Member

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    Would it ? I didn’t think so but happy to be wrong
     
    #74871
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  12. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    Ask Tony Martin.
     
    #74872
  13. Staines R's

    Staines R's Well-Known Member

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    Did he do time in the end ? I honestly can’t remember….I know it proper ****ed up his life and eventually he had to move but can’t remember the trial

    Just seen….served 3 years
     
    #74873
  14. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    He was convicted of murder, reduced to manslaughter due to ‘diminished responsibility’ on appeal and did three years. A seriously odd bloke but an Englishman’s home is his castle and all that bollocks……
     
    #74874
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  15. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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    Tony Martin: Man who shot burglars knows he still divides opinion
    By Mark Shields
    BBC News

    Published
    17 August 2019
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    Image caption,
    Tony Martin keeps a copy of a 2018 newspaper reporting the ruling Richard Osborn-Brooks, who also killed a burglar, did not act unlawfully
    A farmer who shot dead a burglar breaking into his property has said he realises his conviction continues to divide people, 20 years on.

    Tony Martin was jailed after killing teenager Fred Barras and injuring Brendon Fearon with an illegal gun at his Norfolk farmhouse.

    His murder conviction caused a national debate over homeowners' rights.

    "What happened to me is important to every man, woman and child in this country - not just to me," said Martin.

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    IMAGE SOURCE,SHUTTERSTOCK
    Image caption,
    Fred Barras was 16 when he was shot by Tony Martin
    The farmer, now 74, was convicted of murder in 2000 though it was later downgraded to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility after a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, and he was released in 2003.

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    Fearon, 29, and 16-year-old Fred had travelled from Newark in Nottinghamshire on the evening of 20 August to raid Bleak House, the semi-derelict farm building in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, where Martin stored antiques.


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    IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
    Image caption,
    Police officers guard the scene of the shooting at Martin's farmhouse in August 1999
    Upon hearing them, Martin came down from an upstairs bedroom and opened fire with a pump-action shotgun.

    Martin claimed to have been acting in self-defence; prosecutors argued he had anticipated the pair and lay in wait for them.




    The case attracted huge public attention, with his supporters casting him as a man taking a stand to defend his home and others seeing him as a violent eccentric who turned vigilante.

    Law 'should protect'
    Twenty years on from what he calls "that fateful night", Martin maintains he does not "have to excuse myself for anything", and believes the law still falls short in protecting householders defending their homes.

    He insists his "problem" - the term he uses to refer to the break-in, shooting and imprisonment - matters, because he believes he should have been treated as the victim, not the criminal.

    "I've always said when people get into exceptional circumstances which are beyond the norm, the law should leave you alone," he said. "You should be protected in law against these things."


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    IMAGE SOURCE,PA
    Image caption,
    Martin, pictured in October 2001, served three years in prison
    He followed closely the case of Richard Osborn-Brooks, the 79-year-old who last year stabbed to death a burglar at his home in south London, and who faced no charges.

    In his car's glove compartment, Martin keeps a well-thumbed copy of a newspaper reporting the inquest conclusion that the burglar was lawfully killed.

    "Every case is different but some people are of the opinion that, personally, he didn't do anything wrong," said Martin. "He didn't go to bed that night to end up killing somebody. It happened because these things do happen."

    The law permits homeowners to use "reasonable force" to defend their homes against intruders, and was clarified in 2013 to recognise the highly-charged nature of such encounters.

    In Martin's case, prosecutors successfully argued he had used excessive force in shooting both burglars in the back as they climbed out of a window.

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    IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
    Image caption,
    The stairs in Bleak House from which Martin shot Barras and Fearon
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    'Law has not changed'
    The circumstances of Tony Martin's crime formed a "perfect storm" to split a nation over the rights of homeowners to defend themselves, said a leading criminologist - but did not change the law.


    Prof David Wilson said Martin became a powerful and divisive symbol, held up both by those who believed his actions were justified and those who did not.

    "Was he defending his home from intruders or simply a vigilante taking the law into his own hands?" said Prof Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham City University.

    "I don't think any journalist missed the opportunity to frame that story in the way that suited their readership."

    Despite those interpretations, Martin was found guilty - and the impact of his case has not changed the legal facts, Prof Wilson said.

    "The law has not changed. You are allowed to take reasonable steps to defend yourself and your property.

    "The test of what's reasonable was not felt to have been met in Martin's case because the intruders were running away."

    The law allows for "reasonable force" to be used - a test Martin failed, leading legal experts to warn after the verdict that he should not be seen as "the typical Englishman trying to defend his castle".


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    IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
    Image caption,
    Police cordoned off Martin's remote farmhouse
    'Icon or kiddy killer'
    Though he claims to be a man who sees "in black and white", Martin understands his case still divides opinion.

    To some he is "an icon", he says, citing the 4,000 cards he received on his first Christmas in prison. To others, such as those who confront him on the street, he is a "kiddy killer".

    But he says the law continues to fail to factor in the isolation felt by many targets of burglary, particularly in rural locations.

    "There's no comprehension or understanding of individuals who are on their own. In certain situations, you are on your own - it's as simple as that," he said.

    "When I walked down that staircase that fateful night I took back control of my home."

    Martin says he is still targeted by burglars, and has set up surveillance systems he claims show people trespassing to size up his properties.

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    IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
    Image caption,
    Brendon Fearon was wounded in the legs by Martin
    During the court case in 2000, the jury heard Martin had developed a hatred of burglars after repeated break-ins at the farmhouse he inherited from his uncle.

    After he was jailed, he says, he confronted a burglar in prison in an attempt to understand.

    "I said: 'I understand you break into people's houses. Why do you do it?'," said Martin.

    "He said that's how things are. He then turned his back. I said BANG!

    "He said 'What's that?' and I said 'That's how things are.'"

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    Image caption,
    Tony Martin says he does not often think about the men he shot
    Most years the anniversary passes without fanfare for Martin, more notable for the rapid drawing in of the nights than the events that sent him to prison.

    He claims to rarely think of the two men he shot, conceding only their encounter changed his life "in many, many ways".

    'I just stood there'
    Two years ago, he paid a visit to the grave of Fred Barras in the teenager's home town of Newark.

    "I saw a chap [in the graveyard], and said 'Do you know Barras and where his grave is? Do you mind taking me up there and showing me?'

    "It was right up the other end from the gate. I just stood there and looked at it," said Martin.

    "There's a photograph of him on it - it's the same photograph as the one people keep using. The only thing I have ever seen of him is the photograph."

    The BBC approached Fred Barras's family but they said they did not want to speak about his death.

    For years after the shooting, Martin refused to return to Bleak House, preferring to stay night-to-night with friends and his other properties in west Norfolk.

    Twenty years on from the night that thrust him into the headlines, he remains a recognisable figure in his village and beyond, and one who continues to divide opinion.
     
    #74875
  16. Staines R's

    Staines R's Well-Known Member

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    Si from that I’m reading that Goldie is in fact incorrect and self defence isn’t an excuse
     
    #74876
  17. kiwiqpr

    kiwiqpr Barnsie Mod

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    not when they are running away
    not sure how it would work if they are running away after killing someone in your castle
     
    #74877
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  18. sb_73

    sb_73 Well-Known Member

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    I think it’s a defence, but not necessarily a watertight one. But I think Goldhawk is a lawyer, or at least very keen on the law, he refers to it a lot.
     
    #74878
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  19. Staines R's

    Staines R's Well-Known Member

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    @Goldhawk-Road tell us more
     
    #74879
  20. bobmid

    bobmid Well-Known Member

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    All depends on bent coppers, a bent judicary system and a bent judge
     
    #74880
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