"It may be that some members of the public, or media commentators, will assert that the man Salem deserved what happened to him ... and that you should not have been prosecuted and need not be punished,” he said."However, if persons were permitted to take the law into their own hands and inflict their own instant and violent punishment on an apprehended offender rather than letting justice take its course, then the rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse."
My bold. Now I suspect the defendant did not know the victims[?!] previous records but having now heard it is 50+ convictions I would say our system of criminal justice is on life support and if something is not done to either to re-educate repeat offenders or keep them off the streets we will see more of this type of thing.
Likewise we are not permitted to own firearms for self-defence any more (the law changed in England & Wales in the 1920's) as we should be able to rely upon the police to defend us and our property from violent criminals and the government & judicial system should ensure the police are adequately supported & equipped to do so.
The way I see it the English system has failed on two counts prior to the home-owner beating the living daylights out of this guy;
1) Getting the robber to mend his ways earlier in his criminal career or to keep him locked up.
2) To permit a law abiding citizen from being equipped to defend his family & home from the threat of violent attack or to ensure that the police are on the scene within moments of the such an act taking place.
The second potentially opens a can of worms, where does it stop? If you accept that the police cannot be on scene in minutes (which realistically they cannot) what is the next step? What would have happened if the previously law abiding home-owner was permitted (as in Texas) to carry a firearm and trained to use it?
