Citizen's Arrest Gets Arrest

[Speedtouch]

A reasonably local story, not on the national news, but on the South East news.

Video (I guess UK Only) - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7474370.stm

I can't find the report in writing (will post up when released), but here is a basic summary of the story...

Man comes home to find 'youths' pelting his house with stones and stuff, with his wife inside. He calls a Police hot-line (we are told NOT to call 999 to report anti-social behavior), but is kept on hold for 45 minutes, so decides to take things into his own hands. He tells them to go away, but they don't, so he citizen arrests one of them and takes him into his house, until the Police arrive.

When they arrive, they arrest the man on suspicion of kidnapping.

The police say the first they heard of the incident was a mother calling to say that her 10 year old son was being held against his will.

Police then say that if the man had called 999 (remember, against what we are told as law abiding citizens), then they could have responded to the situation much quicker.


I think this is just pure shit. I just don't get how it could have ended up with the guy being arrested... And to be honest, if the child involved was supposedly 10, then what the fuck was he doing pelting a house anyway?

[jetsetter]

we are told NOT to call 999 to report anti-social behavior

What? Throwing shit at a person's home is vandalism and as such is a serious crime.

[teeb]

Originally Posted by jetsetter

What? Throwing shit at a person's home is vandalism and as such is a serious crime.

Agreed, but there should be different levels of responses for "Hello, I'm being stabbed / robbed / in a fight / raped" and "Some youths are spray painting on my wall / loitering under a street light".

I do agree that in an ideal world, all of the above will have some police there in as short a time as possible, but if the choice is sending a policeman to one of the first group I mentioned or "some youths throwing stones at my walls" then I'd rather it went to the former.



As to the actual topic, re : citizen arrests, I was talking about this the other day. As I understand it, in order to make a citizen's arrest there has to be concrete proof that a crime was committed or was about to be committed. Presumably in this case it's just his word against the youth's.

Although, again, I've no idea why the man was arrested.

[nist7]

Intentional property damage (and possible trespassing) is not an anti-social behavior; it's a crime. This homeowner has suffered the consequences of failing to act responsibly by not recognizing a clear crime-in-progress and not calling 911/999 immediately.

[Viper007Bond]

England cracks me up.

[watto]

England FTL.

Being told not to call your emergency number because some hooligans are pelting rocks at your house only to be arrested and subsequently told that you should have called 999 for a quicker response. What the feck.

[anti-net]

This is why no one trusts the police, you phone them up to report your car stolen and before you know your in the tower of London getting done for treason.

What we need is a return of something humans use to have, it was handy for dealing with situations its called: COMMON SENSE not "guidelines", no ignore them, some bloke in a suit who earns to much wrote them, common sense is much much more powerful!

[phuckingduck]

Wow. We call 911 for just about everything up here. The cops are smart enough that if they're on response to some meaningless crap like this, and someone gets stabbed, they'll drop what they're doing and go to the stabbing. Great cops, except when they're doing traffic enforcement...

Anywho, good job England!

[TomCat]

You see, had this happened in Texas, the man could have pulled out a gun and made the world a better place with a few spent rounds.

[Scooby5]

Originally Posted by teeb

As to the actual topic, re : citizen arrests, I was talking about this the other day. As I understand it, in order to make a citizen's arrest there has to be concrete proof that a crime was committed or was about to be committed. Presumably in this case it's just his word against the youth's.

Although, again, I've no idea why the man was arrested.

Assume that there's rocks and "stuff" laying around the ground plus all the marks on his wall where the stuff hit.

Can't go anywhere without a camera phone these days though.

But if he was on hold for 45-min waiting for the police to answer and the kids were throwing stuff all that time persumeably he had time to even go inside and get a camera.......even a sketchpad and pencil Plus they must have either balls the size of melons or not a social fibre in their body, or both.

[the infinite jar]

I call bullshit, who here knows a ten year old with the attention span to throw rocks at a house for 45 fucking minutes?

[NooDle]

wtf?

I see why he did what he did, but how is this kidnapping? he stopped the kid from damaging his house ffs

Indeed, Englandland For The MF Loss

[smib]

Originally Posted by the infinite jar

I call bullshit, who here knows a ten year old with the attention span to throw rocks at a house for 45 fucking minutes?

mhm

[Peter3hg]

The issue is that you can only do a citizens arrest for an indictable offence yet he didn't feel that the issue was serious enough to call 999. You can't have it both ways. But even so it seems like a massive over reaction by the police.

[Cobol74]

If I, as a youngster, was found to be throwing anything at anyone, or their property, for any reason whatsoever my mother would have gone so far up the wall that I would still remeber it to this day! I know I would not have done it again.

Any way it would never ever occur to me to damage anyones property - why do that? So, first step chucking things at peoples property, next step gaol for something major.

[Twerp128]

In America cops generally take the word of two mature adults over the word of a 10 year old without supervision.

[Speedtouch]

Update: Case dropped. The police considered the case twice, before deciding that no charges could be brought, so 'apologized' and released him.

[phuckingduck]

Originally Posted by Speedtouch

Update: Case dropped. The police considered the case twice, before deciding that no charges could be brought, so 'apologized' and released him.

Wait, was he under detention this whole time?!

[Speedtouch]

^ I guess under bail, so free, but must return at a later date.