Notes From Animal Farm

The Eurabian Times notes the latest emission from the Association of Chief Police Officers. As Matt notes, the advice boils down to 'Do not arm yourself with legal weapons. Do not approach people who violate your home. Do not prevent them from stealing your property. Lock yourself in the closet and let the state handle it.' All that I would add to that is remember to take a flashlight into the closet with you so you can write your last will and testament while you're waiting to die.

Seems like some animals are more equal than others though. Householders finding Hannibal Lecter breaking in at 3 AM are warned not that police are "definitely not" advising people to have weapons in their homes. "We would not tell the public to arm themselves with any weapon, legal or illegal." But when it comes to dealing with Joe Public leaving the Dog & Duck, Mr Plod not only gets armed to the teeth, he thinks public execution is the only way.

Hey, say what you like about Tony Martin, at least the guy he shot really was a burglar, not someone who merely looked like he might be.

Yes, standard disclaimer follows: the two officers in question may have been justified in firing. It possible to feel some sympathy for these people as individuals - history shows they'll be thrown to the wolves. But how much sympathy can you have for them compared with this guy ? Does anyone think that if it had gone the other way, he wouldn't have been crucified by the state ?

That's the reality: people being slaughtered in their own homes, people being persecuted for not being slaughtered in their own homes. Now two of our touchy-feely social workers in blue, heavily-armed, wearing the latest body armour, and with reinforcements on the way, panic and gun down an innocent man and we're supposed to bring a bottle to their pity party ?

At least they had something Robert Symons and Tony Martin never got: a choice. They chose to wear that uniform, chose to serve the system which claimed Martin and Symons as its victims - yet now they lay claim to our sympathy for their sudden reversal of fortune, from hunter to hunted. That's it, that the central arrogance of the modern police - they cry foul when they're treated as though they were just ordinary citizens.