Wednesday, July 27, 2011

It's a robberry, lets arrest the shop owner!

You cannot make this sort of stuff up at times, there was a robbery at a florist, a robber got stabbed and died the police then arrest a 72-year-old florist.
BBC.
A 72-year-old florist has been arrested after a man was stabbed to death in a robbery at a shop in Greater Manchester.
Police were called to the shop on Shrewsbury Street, Old Trafford, at 21:40 BST on Tuesday.
A 30-year-old man was taken to hospital with serious injuries and died a short time later.
Shop owner Cecil Coley was taken to hospital with minor injuries and is being held on suspicion of murder.
The dead man is believed to have been one of a number of men who tried to rob the shop.
Police said a gun was found at the scene and was being forensically examined.
Ch Supt Mark Roberts said: "Police in the area became aware of a disturbance at the florists.
"On attendance, there were a number of people in and around the shop and a number of men had fled the scene. 
He said it was not clear what the "full circumstances" were.
Clear enough apparently to arrest the shop owner though and as the shop was being robbed I reckon the guys a hero and anyone robbing the shop deserved everything they got, particularly as it appears to be a gang of them. Just last month the government confirmed that for a homeowner it is legal to stab a burglar and within the law MP Ken Clarke has confirmed reasonable force such as a knife cricket bat or baseball bat can be used in self defence of yourself and your family if confronted by a criminal at home or on the streets. The government were even looking to increase those rights to prevent things like this from happening. You'd have thought that would have applied to anyone defending their property or place of work. This doesn't seem however to have made its way down to Greater Manchester Police though.
So, here we go again, the police would much rather arrest a 72 year old florist than simply get on with the investigation into what actually happened. As for the robber, well so far all I can say is that he got what he deserved.

Captain Ranty puts a quicker version here.

6 annotations:

Curmudgeon said...

Even if no charges are brought (as in the recent similar case) it is surely wrong to arrest people at all if it appears they have been acting in self-defence.

All Seeing Eye said...

Curmudgeon doesn't go far enough. The govt has just flipped on keeping DNA samples. Even swabs from innocent people will now be retained indefinitely (just "completely anonymised" and only labelled with a barcode which will...track it back to the original name.)

His arrest will also be on file forever, charge or no charge. It's no damn defence for the police to maybe say that he's 72 so is likely to conveniently die before needing an invasive CRB check - and the embarrassment that will produce. No, his chances of being Father Christmas for Round Table at the local fete are buggered forevermore.

Potential violent bastard, eh? Can't risk that.

So the bloke is on a set of nasty lists until the day he croaks. All for defending himself.

Anonymous said...

wonder if the colour scheme is the wrong way round.

Mutton said...

It is his own fault, he should have got killed and the bad fella would have had to add another conviction to his list.
The old man was just not thinking straight, he could have been dead but right if he had played it properly.

James Higham said...

Your home and your shop are your castles. End of story. This is wrong.

Anonymous said...

If someone breaks into my house while i`m in it the police will never get to hear about it,i have a sword,a shovel,a car and i live very close to Epping forest.