what have criminals done to you?

[Dusty1]

White collar is the worst kind of criminality. Look at Lehman Bros in the States. Stuffed the Yanks for about four years. The place in Bairnsdale (GSI), Pyramid, the mob in Kyabram. These things do major damage to us, but they don't get put in jail.

Look at BP in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 dead and heaps of environmental damage for years to come. Screwed a lot of fishermen, and those who work with/off them. No one went to jail that I'm aware of.

Thankfully I've never been done over, despite living in the inner west of Melbourne. Mates up the road were for some change and a Melway. I've got security doors, and most of the places in this block don't, so I'd figure they'd go to a unit that didn't have them before mine. A locksmith told me that they would have to break a window to get in, and most crims don't like doing that.

[Spinner77]

Sorry for this late contribution.

I see the new Liberal Democrat Senator for NSW has been saying things around this issue.

He referred to a well-known case in Melbourne of sexual assault and murder. A point he was making was the women in particular are required by law to go around as victims. If they carry mace or anything else to defend themselves, they are carrying an offensive weapon, and open to arrest and prosecution. Personally, I think there is more than a point there, especially for women and the elderly.

The problem with the common law is that your self-defence has to be "reasonable" and "proportionate" to the threat. How you work that out in a split second when you are wetting yourself with terror is, as far as I know, not well explained.

I once read something where a Saudi official said there was very little "normal crime" in Saudi Arabia. I have no doubt that is true. I do wonder whether the time has come to reintroduce corporal punishment for some crimes. In most cases the offenders are cowards, and the humiliation perhaps as much as the pain of, say, a caning could be a deterrent. Civilised places like Singapore do it. Why not try it out and see the impact?

Feel free to disagree.

[NX74205]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

The problem with the common law is that your self-defence has to be "reasonable" and "proportionate" to the threat. How you work that out in a split second when you are wetting yourself with terror is, as far as I know, not well explained.

I agree with you, and that's why I think people legitimately in lawful possession of property using force to defend it, regardless of the question of proportionality, should be immune from prosecution.

Originally Posted by Spinner77

I once read something where a Saudi official said there was very little "normal crime" in Saudi Arabia. I have no doubt that is true. I do wonder whether the time has come to reintroduce corporal punishment for some crimes. In most cases the offenders are cowards, and the humiliation perhaps as much as the pain of, say, a caning could be a deterrent. Civilised places like Singapore do it. Why not try it out and see the impact?

I think corporal punishment is barbaric. It's just state sanctioned assault.

But there is a definite need for harsher penalties for those convicted of breaking and entering, stealing and robbery.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

Sorry for this late contribution.

. I do wonder whether the time has come to reintroduce corporal punishment for some crimes. In most cases the offenders are cowards, and the humiliation perhaps as much as the pain of, say, a caning could be a deterrent. Civilised places like Singapore do it. Why not try it out and see the impact?

Feel free to disagree.

yeah I disagree...it's a bit like capital punishment.

Just as it is a bit hard to bring someone back after the gas chamber if later found innocent, just as hard to retract the lashes and public humiliation if later evidence finds you innocent.

Quite a lot of prisoners in the US were killed wrongly as DNA evidence later revealed.

Do i want that on my conscience? NOPE

Does violence prevent violence? NOPE

[chrisfpv]

Thankfully I've never been the victim of a criminal attack. I'm not sure what I'd do if I was. I'd be outraged no doubt as I was boiling the time someone took a center cap off one of my rims a couple of years ago!

[EvilChief]

I have gotten off relatively easy so far,

One attempted grand theft auto on my Subaru Liberty Turbo ... was however hindered by the fact that there was no gearbox in it at the time (yes another broken Subaru gearbox), the ended up stealing my number plates and driving a Festiva on the roads with them for a week or so, before the cops picked them up with it and I got my number plates back (were only standard issue ones anyway).

Second car was not really stolen, but was fraud. Had to sell the shell of my race 4WD as it was sitting in a mates backyard and he was getting the **** with it (that's fair enough). Ended up selling it to a friend of a friend, he gave me a deposit and was going to pay me out a week later. He ended up stripping the car, fitted it all to another car sold, made a profit, moved interstate a few months later and never to be heard of again. ended up finding out that he owed a lot of people and even local business a lot of money. 2.5g lost there.

Then also had a bunch of tools stolen from my tool box in my car port (they were locked but still pried them open and stole all my air tools, a couple grands worth lost there.

And then the usual internet fraud, mostly me buying something of ebay or forums and never receiving the goods, but that has improved immensely in last few years with the introduction of new and safer payment methods (having said that still waiting for some parts to arrive that I ordered over 4 weeks ago).