Saturday 22 August 2009

Our New Generation…

Reading the paper last week, two reports caught my eye.

First, the two law students in Brazil:
The two British backpackers who falsely claimed they had been robbed in an insurance scam must stay in Brazil until next April to complete their punishment.

Shanti Andrews and Rebecca Turner were yesterday handed 16 months' community service by judge in Rio de Janeiro.
Which some might say meant they got off lightly…
They were said to be 'stunned and upset', having expected a much lighter punishment after pleading guilty two days ago to attempting to defraud their insurance firm.
Sadly, ladies, Brazil is not the UK. I expect even you’ve figured that out by now.
Turner, from Newbury in Berkshire, and Andrews, from Tunbridge Wells in Kent, are both likely to be barred from entering the legal profession on their return to the UK because of their criminal record.
Good. The last thing we need is people like this going in to law.

Secondly, the waste of oxygen who thought it would be fun to kill her neighbour’s cat with a crossbow that her equally useless current sperm-donor had bought her:
A drunken teenage girl fired a crossbow bolt at her neighbour's cat in Hyde and then left it to die.

Chloe O'Connor, 19, shot the cat from her bedroom window and fired the weapon with such force that it went through the pet's stomach and out the other side.
Charming…
O'Connor, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and handed in various character references to the court.

Sentencing was adjourned until September 9 while the probation service prepares full reports.
‘Character references’ and ‘probation reports’? Good grief…

But the thing that struck me was looking at their pictures (the pudgy cat killer’s picture was in the ‘Metro’ report, which doesn’t seem to be online) and thinking how alike they were, despite the presumed difference in upbringing, education, social class and all the other things that are supposed to matter.

They all wore the look, on their similarly-bovine and sullen faces, that said ‘What? Punishment? But there’s not supposed to be any consequences to my actions!’

Truly, they are all products of the modern society we’ve created. Can’t we be proud?

7 comments:

NickM said...

You carry out a petty fraud. What will you do when called to the bar?

You shoot a cat with a crossbow. What would you do to a person?

And character references? You could have one co-signed by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury and it doesn't matter. You killed a small animal out of sheer malice. If it had been my cat then I'd be the one on trial...

Mark Wadsworth said...

I'm glad the first two were banned. Not because what they did was particularly evil, but because it was so petty and stupid.

Agreed on the second one.

North Northwester said...

Stupid little mares, the lot of them. So much for the Sisters' view that wimmin make the world a better place just because.

They do, as it happens, but not for any reasons respected in the irresponsible world of the machine Left

David Gillies said...

All the British birds round my neck of the woods (Central America) are a) top totty and b) would never think of shooting a cat with a crossbow (or committing fraud).

Then of course there's our very own JuliaM, who by her taxonomic handle has pretty much owned up to being the ultimate cougar.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Leg-iron said...

I own a crossbow (cue gasps of horror) and a takedown recurve bow, neither of which I have ever fired at any living creature. They shoot straw targets only.

It's illegal to hunt with bows in the UK. It's illegal to fire them at any living thing, even a wasp.

So what she did wasn't just animal cruelty, it was illegal hunting.

Curiously, none of the law was mentioned to me when I bought my bows. I looked it up, before buying. All it would take is a leaflet in the box, stating the penalties for using these weapons to kill something, and there'd be no need for 'reports' and 'assessments' and ultimately 'excuses'. You get locked up for exactly as long as it says on the box.

Oh, and the force she fired it at wasn't her choice. Crossbows are fixed-force, you draw back the bow (with both hands, with the loop at the end of the stock firmly hooked on something) and it locks in place, so it fires with the same force each time. Mine will go through a thin straw target, through the pallet holding it up and out the other side if I'm closer than about 20 yards.

Yes, it's dangerous, and considerable precautions are required when handling - one of the biggest being 'don't be drunk'. Of course, if I had a car, I could do a lot more damage than any bow ever could.

Nevertheless, these are weapons and because they are in the hands of a few morons, the weapon will soon be banned and the morons given a pat on the head and a reward for finding a new thing to ban.

Meanwhile, kids have found a new game to play. Lately they are setting people on fire for fun.

How long before fire is banned? I suspect it'll be just after the banning of the wheel.

JuliaM said...

"If it had been my cat then I'd be the one on trial..."

Ditto. Interesting that the report mentions that the neighbour who owned the cat works, yet no such claim is made about the female or her paramour...

"So much for the Sisters' view that wimmin make the world a better place just because."

Indeed!

"...who by her taxonomic handle has pretty much owned up to being the ultimate cougar.

Sorry, couldn't resist."


;)

"Curiously, none of the law was mentioned to me when I bought my bows. I looked it up, before buying. All it would take is a leaflet in the box.."

It'd just be ignored by the stupid and the cruel, and the magistrates would still find a way to work their 'reports' into the pre-sentencing. It's ingrained in them by now.

"Oh, and the force she fired it at wasn't her choice. "

No, but it sounds better to a jury. How many of them would know?

It's rather like the penchant the MSM has for using phrases like 'assault weapon' or 'high powered rifle'. It sounds dangerous to the layman, and that's all that matters.

"Meanwhile, kids have found a new game to play. Lately they are setting people on fire for fun."

Ah, that'll be this one?

Perhaps Chloe 'The Jackal' O'Connor could be released to do some community cleanup in the Halifax area. She can bring her crossbow...

Rob said...

Shooting cats/people/etc, isn't this a sort of scrumping, which all kids used to do? Moral panic, etc.