he lived in a shoebox in the middle of the road and left for work before he got home, no doubt
(
scarpe We Stole Bikes, Tue 16 Aug 2011, 21:25,
Reply)
Nope...
Three-bedroomed terraced house, as stated.
The point is that just because you are poor, it doesn't excuse thievery. Aside from basic shelter, food and freedom from abuse, no-one has a *right* to anything that they don't earn in some way. Banging out six kids by six different fathers, or actively avoiding work in order to live off the state, or smashing up the town because you ran out of credit on your £300 smartphone and your dole isn't due for a week is not acceptable behaviour. My point was that my grandparents did what they could to live a decent life, my father worked his way up to middle-classdom and bought his own home and raised me to work hard to earn the things I want.
In all fairness, under the previous government (who should take sole responsibility for the way the younger generation turned out, as it happened on their watch - they were in for 14 years, after all) created a climate where the actively workshy grew used to a standard of living that was unaffordable for the taxpayers, but also made them believe anything less was an attack on their human rights. They were taught that anyone pointing out that shoplifting, vandalism and happy-slapping was unacceptable were infringing their cool liberties and provided a legal system that cared more about the criminal's rights than those of the victim. The sentences are within the remit of the law an only appear harsh because we have grown used to news stories where some little moron steals, smashes and pillages their way round an estate and laughs on the way out of court after receiving community service and a visit from social services to see if he isn't stressed out by his ordeal.
If you break the law, you cannot be surprised to be punished for it - as the saying goes: if you can't do the time, don't do the crime. These morons weren't desperate people looting for food (as after Katrina hit New Orleans), these were assholes who thought that they could steal consumer goods and sell them on eBay with impunity.
(, Tue 16 Aug 2011, 22:22, Reply)
