Farmer not a vigilante

[wilagro]

Not exactly on topic but what else is new?

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Alberta farmer shot thief vigilante appeal court declares/6895513/story.html

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[tipsy]

for some reason i can not get this page to display. so what happened?

[ASRG]

The appeal court threw out his jail sentence and just put him on probation for 3 months.
Three thieves stole his ATV and he came up shooting.
Instead of probation he should have got a medal!

[wilagro]

tipsy: Still works for me. Highlight it and paste into your browser or with right context menu highlight it and use "open in new tab".

I just tried it and it still works.

To highlight it press and hold left button and drag over the whole URL.

[oneoff]

Since the punishment for a crime is supposed to act as a deterrance; maybe the "30 day" sentence for stealing wasn't nearly severe enough.

Afterall, that is the side of the equation which prompted the whole episode. And there are sure to be a thousand identical such thefts for every instance of where someone catches the thief red handed and does the least thing about it.

I have no doubt most thieves would curse and swear at their infrequent captors and swear vengence and revenge.

As a juror I would have a hard time not going with my convictions; despite how inflexable the "law" might be.

[cottonpicken]

Shooting someone twice with a shot gun in the back
for stealing a quad?

[wilagro]

cottonpicken: why not? Too bad he didn't have #2 shot or better yet slugs. He was trying to stop him from getting away after all.

We might never know how we would react until a similar situation occurred on our own farm.

[cottonpicken]

You guys are kidding right?

[farmaholic]

This whole scene could have turned out real bad. Let's say the thieves were armed and a better shot, is the quad worth a life and a family being fatherless? Hardly.

[grassfarmer]

Apparently not Cotton..... lots of "wild west" dreamers
prepared to take the law into their own hands.
Shooting at someone riding away in the dark is pretty
reckless - could have been facing a murder charge
instead.

[oneoff]

I'd say all the imaginable punishments short of using deadly force have been proven to not to be effective in stopping stealing susceptible property and terrorising people who do not deserve such stress and worry.

Of course it is a very serious matter to discharge any weapon. But don't lose sight of what caused the "wreckless behavior" in the first place.

Apparently there are a whole lot of people who know details of criminal activity and are literally too cowardly to help bring culprits to justice. And if the punishments under the law are not enough to provide deterrence; then society can expect other remedies to continue to be used.

And there always will be some instances where some persons will take the law into their own hands.
I would be the last to suggest that deadly forceresort; but the first to want to know all the circumstances that drove someone to that horrible point in their lives.
And any thief or poacher who used a weapon in the commission of their crime should have next to no compassion shown by the justice system.

Anyone remember the Robert Latimer story. That had all the same overtones of this "debate". No real workable solutions; but lots of hard line rhetoric from people who don't necessarily have the first clues about real life.

[riders2010]

It's like this if there is a disrespectful sob that continually steals vandelizes etc. and he gets caught in the sights, well?

But if it's a couple of kids horsing around and not justifying it but maybe get a bit goofy one time and take a bike for a joyride maybe that's quite a bit different, but how would you know which one was in your sights?

[farmaholic]

"I'd say all the imaginable punishments short of using deadly force have been proven to not to be effective in stopping stealing susceptible property and terrorising people who do not deserve such stress and worry."

Brian Knight initially sentenced to 90 days in jail to be spent on week ends then finally reduced to 3 months probation and 50 hours community service. And I think prohibited from possessing firearms for 10 years.

The three thieves all pleaded guilty to theft under $5000.00 and got: Groening-30 days in jail, Rosenthal- 15 days in jail, Dewald- fined $400.00. How much time was actually spent behind bars?

Initially, who would you say got the harsher punishment and suffered more stress and worry.

The justice system is F'ed. The victim intially got the harsher punishment.

Even children learn they can get away with more and more when they are continually bombarded with empty threats. Kinda like the justice system, no consequences for your actions.

I still don't agree with Knight's approach to the matter but why is he treated like more of a criminal than the people who were responsible for starting the whole thing? Oh yea, examples need to set to prevent the return of the wild west rule of law.

[dogdung]

if the courts would punish thieves there may not
be a need for this action i applaud the action of
the farmer

[Burbert]

As much force as is necessary, is all that
can be applied. Shooting culprits fer
stealing in Comedia, is way over the line
according to Comedian Courts. Whinning
and sniveling to authorities is the way ta
go, ifn someone steals yer fun machine....