rugbymatt

So the next person who gets in their car pissed should not be fined, have their license taken away and be ostracized? If you get in a car pissed you don't intend to go and hurt someone yet by doing so you break the law and deserve punishment... see the correlation?

bil

Thanks Fred.

Now let's ask another question.

Hands up all those who think that because the students were defying the government so badly, this guy has been given a harsher sentance than he might have otherwise, 'pour encourager les autres' ?

Also, failure to answer the questions. Would that be because they are unable to empathise with the poor little sod?

Also, there's a hell of a difference between this, and pulling a gun to shoot up and kill 6 people.

anonimouse

Harsh? He didn't get enough

Not if you or your loved ones are one who gets killed

bil

Now that's an interesting way to post it.

Why did you cut out my post with a 'spoiler' where it said

"Hands up all those who think that because the students were defying the government so badly, this guy has been given a harsher sentance than he might have otherwise, 'pour encourager les autres' ? "

Remind me again how many people were killed here?

bil

I'd guess that he didn't go on that march saying 'I'm going to chuck an extinguisher off a high building onto someone.'

You get into a car pissed, you are lethal from the get go.

anonimouse

Having trouble with the highlighting and things that's all Bill. Thats why I have to edit so much, nothing works too well.

I know nobody got killed in this instance but it was only by sheer luck.
However what others are saying here is that No way under any circumstances would they turn their own in. That is what is, IMO worrying

bil

I think you would find that under the worst circs they would give their child the advice that turning themselves in would be the best option.

It may well be here that the mother saw the pics, realised that the images were so clear that it was only a matter of time before someone pointed the finger, and advised the boy that the best step was to hand himself over.

Without that evidence, in her position I would have told him to stay schtum, and tell him that he should pay that act back by making sure he did stuff in the future to repay the debt in other ways.

I think that would have been better than getting him banged up.

As it is, we end up paying for his stay in prison, as well as ending up with someone with a criminal record instead of someone that might have gone on to do good.

jimenato

Not me.

It doesn't matter how many were killed - if he had killed 10 people with his fire extinguisher he still should have got the same sentence shouldn't he?

Remember this?

bil

I think you will find there is a difference. Had he killed anyone, the question would of course been whether he had intended to kill or not. That would have been the difference between manslaughter and murder. British law places a clear distinction based on intent.

Motive IS all.

As for not thinking a harsher sentance wouldn't have been a question? Seen it done before.

HBG

The UK locks up the highest percentage of its population in Europe, and has the highest crime rate. Denmark, on the other hand, is the exact opposite.

How did the discussion get to nutters in the US and drunken drivers in the UK?

Some people are happy grassing on their own, some even relish it, but luckily the majority of people still find it distasteful.

Some parents send their children to boarding schools and employ nannies to bring them up, some don’t bother much and are glad to see the back of them; I suspect that’s where the grasses live.

I suppose the best way to divide the various views on the topic is between compassionate people and those who don’t know what the word means. Or those who blindly cling to the belief that justice is impartial, oblivious to the evidence all around.

bil

Impartial justice? You slay me dude.

I once read somewhere, 'Given the choice between betraying my country, and betraying my friend, i just pray to god I have the moral fibre to betray my country.'

Here we have a similar choice. Does one 'betray' a legal system that isn't impartial or even reliably honest, or betray ones child.'

For me, no contest.

I suspect here that were the more hysterical ranters put in the position of this mother, and were able to protect their children by staying quiet, they would.

It's just so much easier to metaphorically 'grass' someone else's child.

noelrosie

It was a heat of the moment thing, probably totally out of character! I am reminded of a devout Christian friend who found out that the Bay City Rollers were playing in her town in the 1970's, and swept along by a group of hysterical girls (not possessing a ticket), broke a window of the hall in which they were playing and climbed in.

It was so out of character - she was a practising Christian even then, and realised afterwards that what she had done was wrong. It was between her and her God (although she DID tell her parents who dealt out appropriate punishment). However, she went on to become a terminal care nurse, administering night-time morphine injections to terminally ill patients in their homes, a job many of us would baulk at - and it would certainly have been to the detriment of 'Society' as a whole had she been sent to prison for a crime of youthful exuberence all those years before.

Nobody was killed, or injured on Millbank, and this young man really should not be in prison!

jimenato

Well if (in your opinion) motive IS all, rather than consequence, why should it make any difference to his punishment if someone had been killed? Are you saying that if he had killed somebody the fact that he had done so shouldn't be taken into account - only his motive?

jackytoo

How would you have felt if a relative or a son had been killed by the stupid man. Would you have still gone for a slap on the wrist?

Sam Greenfield

I am finding it really hard to answer this question tbh because as a mother i would find it really really hard 'dobbing' any of my children into the authorities or anyone - as someone has already said it is our job to protect our children - BUT as others have said it is the right thing to do as it could have ended up a really really unfortunate situation of someone being killed and if it had of been my own child who had been hurt or killed i would be going out looking for the little shite that had hurt my child

So - would i dob them in - id hope i would do the right thing at the time but i really dont think you can answer this question truthfully until you are in that situation and lets hope that none of us are ever put in that situation where we might have to