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I couldn't quite believe what I read, so I trawled through various news sites to ensure I wasn't caught out with one dodgy report; they're all saying the same:



More informative raw infomation from, believe it or not, the Currant Bun...

Is this a case of a few nutcase cops, or a nutcase policy?

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Using a knife in your own kitchen is illegal. Better get used to living on packaged soup then. Nutcase cops I think, they didn't actually have sufficient belief in what they said to charge her. Nor do I think any Jury would have convicted her.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Err.. I'm about to carve up roast lambs (yep .. plural .. huge family .. and we are quaffing dry martini cocktails before we start HIC!)

If weilding a huge knife in my own home here is "illegal" .. then how am I supposed to carve this lamb? With me feline fangs

I suppose shaking her fist at them or shouting at them to clear orf.. would also have landed her with a reprimand.

Mutter..
Jack Regan would have shouted "YER NICKED" and Gene Hunt would have "fired up the Quattro" and probably pinned them against a wall before locking 'em up

I think any magistrates court would have chucked out any such case as the nonsense it is.

My own sister received some nuisance calls and blew a whistle down it loudly. One GMP officer told her she was perfectly legal to do so.. her magistrate mentor agreed..but one community plod officer in the presence of a WPc told her that he would consider such to be illegal My sister blew her whistle .. and the calls were traced but all the plod will tell her is that "they sent a text message to the offending number asking him not to do it again" You really cannot make it up.. can you

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The mistake is assuming that police constable, in particular community police officers, have any greater knowledge of the law than the the well informed layman. The number of times recently that senior officers have had to apologize for over zealous constables... The fuss over taking photographs is classic - despite a public explanation of the law by a Superintendent in several newspapers the plod continued threatening photographers.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Totally agree but the real mistake is assuming that government, "laws" Statutes and Acts are for the publics benefit.
Once people realise that the above is Designed to work the way they do and give the results the government, "laws" Statutes and Acts
are designed to give, then perhaps we can have a return to Common Law
and not the profit making scams of government, "laws" Statutes and Acts.

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Dave ~ Freeman on the Land
http://www.freemanhighland.co.uk/
A paradigm shift in law and politics

Yawn

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Don't you know that most supermarkets sell sliced meats, there by removing the need for you to wield a knife?

Ms Klass should obviously have invited the miscreants into the house, and made them a cup of tea, while they awaited the arrival of the police.

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

... and hence why people are increasingly owning big dogs as a serious deterrent of course.
I wonder if a lot of this anti-social - thug type behaviour is to do with 'self-worth' - and overcrowding?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I doubt the police have any problem with you using a carving knife as a tool in your own home for cutting up a joint etc. When you wave it at someone the implication is you are willing to use it as a weapon hence,at a guess, why they objected in this case.

Still a little ridiculous though as you could just as easily say that their actions were a potential threat from which she defended herself by making it clear she was quite prepared to to so.

I wonder is Fisherman has a take on this?

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May

I dunno, Back in the dark ages (You know, the 1970's when the police chased villains, protected the innocent and kept the peace rather than simply meeting government targets and collecting taxes) the Mother of a Girlfreind of mine at the time waved a shotgun at some late night trespassers under very similar circumstances.

She was commended by the police for her quick thinking.

Of course nowadays the police would probabally have shot HER and the vilains would have claimed (and won!) damages for being a bit frightened!

Tell me Im wrong!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Since the police now shoot people who wave chair-legs at them I have no doubt that she would have been shot dead rather faster for a real shotgun.
At the very least they would have arrested her, charged her with illegal use of a firearm and then revoked her shotgun certificate.
Then her children would have been taken into care, from there they would have been adopted so that the child-care (not) department could have collected the £1700.00 that the government give each cc department for getting a care child adopted.

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

Ms Klass was not charged or even cautioned over the knife waving. There is only her word that that she was admonished by the attending officer. But she got many column inches of free publicity in the Sunday Newspapers. A cynical person might think that she or her agent set up the whole affair.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

isn't the law "reasonable force"? If you were in a kitchen you could grab a knife and defend yourself, where as if you were in the garden the law would take a dim view of you running inside, grabbing a carving knife and running back out again and putting it to an intruders throat. If you were in the garden, you'd need to use a spade. That is my understanding of it anyway. I think that is were that fella that chased a bloke down the street and proceeded to beat 7 bells out of him with a cricket bat, putting him in a wheel chair went wrong.

That’s very possible, but so is a charge of common assault (to apprehend) if the trespasser complained.

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Sorry I can't parse that sentence. Could you rephrase it in terms more understandable by my feeble intellect

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I can't go that low

You are right to say "a cynical person might think that she or her agent set up the whole affair"; that's a possibility that can't be denied.

However, if those trespassers (who had the knife waved at them) ran off and complained to the police claiming assault (contact isn't necessary for assault, only "to apprehend" violence need do), then technically that charge could stick!

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

And that is why ,in the boot of my car (in case I get a puncture and have to torque wheel nuts) I carry a large torque wrench .Most times I also have a large Cairn Terrier - who is very protective - he don't want to go looking for arms - he's like my torque wrench -he prefers nuts .And our local lads know how to tell the difference between a nasty dog ,and one protecting .

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

[quote]However, if those trespassers (who had the knife waved at them) ran off and complained to the police claiming assault (contact isn't necessary for assault, only "to apprehend" violence need do), then technically that charge could stick!/quote]

In the absence of third party evidence I would be astonished if the CPP ran with that.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

What if she was holding the blade and waving the handle at them?

APB for Fisherman. Calling Fisherman

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I do indeed have a take on this. There is only one limit to the level of force you can use in self defence. That is, that your response must be proportionate to the risk you reasonably believed you were facing. If Ms Klass had been prosecuted she would have needed to convince a court, on balance of probabilities, that two people at the bottom of her garden while she was indoors (presumably behind locked doors) presented such a risk that waving a knife was proportionate. For what its worth, on the facts as stated I wouldn't have a problem with it.

The vast majority of such cases don't get any where near a court and in my personal experience (which may not be representative) they almost always result in a not guilty verdict. The few that end in a guilty verdict tend to be fairly clear cut. Tony Martin shot a man in the back as he ran away and the jury didn't see that as proportionate. In the most recent high profile one the burglar ran away, was chased and caught by a group who proceeded to beat him senseless with a variety of implements while he lay face down on the ground. Again, that was not seen as proportionate. If they had just sat on him that would have been no problem.

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I am not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. I do have experience of the day to day working of courts and use that knowledge to help where possible. I do not represent any official body and post as an individual.