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Oh that kind of tolerance

Tony Martin has no shortage of supporters. Unfortunately, he has no shortage of sworn enemies either:

Relatives of Fred Barras, the burglar shot dead by Tony Martin, last night warned that the Norfolk farmer will be murdered after his release tomorrow.

One cousin of Barras said Martin was “going to get it”, while another said a hitman would be hired if the dead teenager’s associates failed to carry out a retaliatory attack.

I do believe that threatening to murder someone is a criminal offence. Since these would-be assassins have already revealed themselves to a newspaper, identification should not be a problem and I therefore assume that the police will be rounding these people up.

Or do they only spring into action when otherwise law-abiding people ‘threaten’ to defend themselves?

17 comments to Oh that kind of tolerance

  • Mark L

    How paranoid were the Soviets?

    Consider this little story.

    In order to get Congress to build the Shuttle back in the 1970s NASA produced a hoked-up economic study, “proving” that the Shuttle would not just cut launch costs, but that it just about would generate a stream of free golden eggs, just for the taking.

    In the US, this was discounted as PR to get the beast built. The Soviets assigned a more nefarious purpose to the study. It was a cover story to disguise the “true” purpose of the Shuttle. They could not figure it out, but the knew that no nation could blow billions on something like the Shuttle without *some* real return.

    Then they started downloading Shuttle data from the Internet. This was back in the 70s — bbs and 300 baud dial-up modems.

    NSA caught someone in Vienna going through our databases. Tracked it to a Soviet embassy there. So, the altered some the data that the Soviets had not yet downloaded — thermal info, on heat transfer during reentry. Made reentry seem lots cooler.

    They leaked that data had been altered — but not what — to the Soviets. The Soviets took that — in combo with the bad econ model as proof the US was doing something really nasty — like a manned, orbital, hypersonic bomber (complete with bomb bay door on top, kid).

    Finally, they decided the only way to find out what those inscrutable Amerikanskis were doing was to join them. They spent billions of badly needed currency on Buran, the Soviet shuttle — only after whicht did the truth sink in: As a war machine. Shuttle made a right fine dump truck.

  • zack mollusc

    More propaganda from Mark L!
    The space scuttle IS a bomber. I have noticed that it seems to fly inverted after takeoff. It is the cockpit, tailfin and landing gear that have been moved to fool the public.

  • z

    Could sysop move these comments to the correct “Star Wars” thread…?

  • I would imagine that if Mr Martin does get killed by relatives of the burglar, then we will see the lynch mob to end all lynch mobs.

    We live in interesting times, as the Chinese say.

  • If I hear one more story about Tony Martin my head is going to explode amid the shoppers at my local Mindless Consumerism Emporium. I mean, come on, he shot someone. He pleaded diminished responsibility. He wen’t to jail. Then every country bumpkin the nation over comes out and argues their socks out over the right to own a shotgun and shoot people with it.

    What about Iraq? What about our failing education system? What about all the real problems with the court system (I could give you a list in ten minutes if you wanted)? What about the increasing restrictions on civil liberties since 11/9/2001 both here and Stateside for some stupid “homeland security crap?

    Oh. Wait. Tony Martin killed someone and pleaded diminished responsibility. Whoo.

  • ErikZ

    You’ll find that you don’t give a damn about Iraq, the failing education system or problems with the court system when there’s a strange man who broke into your house.

  • Scott Cattanach

    This is why Tony Martin won’t be released – he has proven himself to be a threat to any of the relatives who break into his house and try to kill him.

  • Harvey

    I think that the best result here would be if one of these nameless scum makes an attempt on Mr Martin’s life and gets shot, preferably by Mr Martin himself with a shotgun he’s concealed somewhere.

    That would be a nice touch, although them being shot by the police would be a perfectly satisfactory conclusion.

  • Theodopoulos Pherecydes

    The police won’t round up the people who threaten Tony Martin. The UK has passed the “tipping point” and is now a society where yob culture is the majority culture and where the beneficiaries of transfer payments outnumber the tax payers.

    It’s over.

  • George

    The right to live is the most important right you have. If you are murdered by a sociopath who invades your home, everything else will suddenly seem … unimportant.

    The right to defend yourself and stay alive, using deadly force if necessary, is the foundation on which all human rights depend. If you are denied this right, you become a worthless slave to a heartless, uncaring bureaucracy of the State.

  • Eamon Brennan

    I am going to make a couple of assumptions here.

    Please correct me if I am wrong. Tony martin (I assume) had a license for this firearm.

    I would also assume that he no longer holds such a license. This leaves him in a position where.

    a) He knows they are coming to get him.
    b) He knows the state won’t defend him.
    c) He knows that if he decides to defend himself successfully, he will be straight back to jail.
    d) Even if he makes this decision, he is going to have to break the law to get a firearm to defend himself with.

    Who would willing be placed in that situation.

    Eamon

  • Alfred E. Neuman

    Tony needs to set some bear traps and pungi sticks. If he can’t get a firearm, at least any fuckers who come through the door could get the Straw Dogs treatment.

  • Send him a one-way ticket to America. At least in the rural areas, we understand the importance of being able to defend your health and home.

  • What Raging Dave said.

    He can stay with us in Texas for a month or two until his place is ready.

    Mr. Martin will have to understand, however, that if a burglar breaks into our house, he can’t just shoot him.

    I have first dibs, my wife has second.

    Our Southern hospitality only goes so far.

  • Tom Morris,

    It is the difference between being a citizen and a subject, something a fellow named Aristotle laid out over two thousand years ago.

  • zack mollusc

    FWIW, punji sticks and bear traps, or even an unsafe bannister are illegal in the sense that a burglar can sue you for any harm that comes to him on your property. Hoorah for british justice.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Tom Morris above doesn’t like all these Tony Martin stories. I kind of sympathise with him if only because it can obscure other news events out there. However, and I think Mr Morris is wrong on this, the focus on the Martin case is justified because it demonstrates the lunacy of our legal/prison system.

    Self-defence is almost totally banned in this country. How we reached a state where a burglar entering a man’s home could do so without any fear is one of the great scandals of modern times.

    Sorry Mr Morris, but this story is not going away, and Samizdata intends to keep up with it.