The Lowest Of The Low

[Si Hunt]

Just read a news report about a group of youths who pelted FIREMEN with stones and bottles after they put out a car fire. The fire engine was then bottled, and the windscreen smashed.

How low can you go? To actually attack people who put their lives on the line to protect the community? Good old taxpayers will have to pay to have the fire engine repaired, of course.

It just strikes me that such behaviour is lower than animals really.

Does it rank as 'the lowest of the low'? Which criminal activity (or otherwise) do you treat as most deplorable? And (let's have some fun) what punishment would we dish out to these yobs in an ideal world?

Si.

[Mike Saville]

Besides the obvious things like murder, paedophilia and rape, this is pretty low, yes. Scariest thing is these runts are someone's sons and daughters... I dunno how I'd feel if I found out Baldrick was up to stuff likethat... notthat I have much to worry about there... his aim is shite and he throws like a girl...

Anyway, the obvious punishments for people like this are the ones that take a huge swipe at their egos, that totally belittles them in front of their peers. The stocks and pillories are always fun (and funny enough I can hire them out for a small fee), public sissification might do, and of course confiscate their burberry.

[Wayne]

I've said it all before but the worst thing about this sort of this is that they'll get a slapped wrist & told not to do it again.
It's this softly softly approach that has engendered such a total lack of respect for anything within our society. I don't know exactly what the answer is, i'll admit. It all seems out of control these days, but Mike's idea wouldn't hurt. They need something that's gonna teach 'em something about basic values.
Either that or Batman at the Controls was right all along. Shoot the ****ers, & sterilize the parents.
(Obviously i don't really mean that, but that's how pissed off thing sort of this makes me feel.)

[Rob McCow]

In Si's example: turn the hoses on 'em.

[Dirk Gently]

Dress 'em in bright pink jumpsuits, Day glow orange wellies & make them pick up litter in the most brightly lit area so that lots of people can see them. Embarrass them so much that it ceases to be funny.

[WhiteCrow]

Well an alternative would be to attack ambulance crew, the complain that the standard of health care recieved after the attack wasn't sufficient.

I'm sure there's a hospital in America which has been sued for this. "Just because my client opened fire on nurses and doctors doesn't mean he loses his human rights to priority emergency treatment".

America is ahead of us in a lot of ways for this.

[Jon Masters]

Set them alight and then see how many firemen pissing on them it takes to put them out.

The ones that annoy me more are those attacking doctors and nurses who are trying to treat their injuries, especially when drunk. Several weekends clearing up blood, vomit and worse in an A&E would (a) save their own livers and (b) keep them off the streets.

[Ralph]

Set them alight and then see how many firemen pissing on them it takes to put them out.

Given that they've put other lives in danger, damaging life saving equipment, I think that seems fair enough to me...

Oh and to even relate them to animals is an insult to animals Mr Hunt!

(At first I thought it was another McCoy thread...)

[Dino]

Well an old friend once told me her son worked as a Fireman on Merseyside.
Smackheads used to put needles on the bannisters, then set fire to the buildings, so the firemen would prick their hands as they raced up the stairs.

[Stuart Wallis]

There was a similar incident at a county cricket match yesterday at Southgate. The Middlesex players had their dressing room rifled, the Hampshire team coach was pelted with stones, and comments were made about players' wives, the latter I've heard myself at a cricket match a few years ago. What can you do though, short of lobotomy and firing squads. I can't see certain individuals changing simply because they've been dressed in Noddy costumes and made to pick up litter outside their schools or favourite nightclub. Would it be right to see how they like having their property half-bricked though?

[Jason Thompson]

On the subject of low life scum, I've just seen the headline in the East Kent Gazette. In my own town some evil youths have killed a kitten with an air rifle. The kitten was exploring its garden and they shot it over the fence. Apparently there has been a spate of animal shootings with air rifles over the past weeks.

How low and pathetic do you have to be to derive pleasure from maiming and killing small defenceless animals and causing emotional upset to the families, many of which include young children who have to be told that their beloved pet is no longer there.

In case it's not obvious, I am FURIOUS about this. Animal cruelty in many ways sickens me more than cruelty to other humans. What possible chance does a kitten have to defend itself, for christ's sake?! These people should be strung up, or subjected to the same abuse they dish out. I'd quite happily fire air rifles at any bastards who use them on animals.

[Dirk Gently]

I wholeheartedly agree with you Jason. These gits are just sick.

After you with the rifle my good man.

[cullsoft]

It just strikes me that such behaviour is lower than animals really.

Let's not bring down the animals, Si.

Seriously though, it's times like this that I think we need to drag ourselves back to the dark ages and make an example of people who think they can (and at the end of the day usually do) get away with this. The facist dictator in me says that when the people are given enough freedom to be led to believe that people (either themselves or others) can get away with criminal "yobbery" such as this, some of that freedom needs to be taken away - with an iron fist if necessary.

[Carol Baynes]

On the subject of low life scum, I've just seen the headline in the East Kent Gazette. In my own town some evil youths have killed a kitten with an air rifle. The kitten was exploring its garden and they shot it over the fence. Apparently there has been a spate of animal shootings with air rifles over the past weeks.

How low and pathetic do you have to be to derive pleasure from maiming and killing small defenceless animals and causing emotional upset to the families, many of which include young children who have to be told that their beloved pet is no longer there.

In case it's not obvious, I am FURIOUS about this. Animal cruelty in many ways sickens me more than cruelty to other humans. What possible chance does a kitten have to defend itself, for christ's sake?! These people should be strung up, or subjected to the same abuse they dish out. I'd quite happily fire air rifles at any bastards who use them on animals.

That make sme seriously ANGRY. I'm not a violent angry person either, so I loathe things that make me feel that way. String 'em up, It'd make me consider making a few Kung-Fu kicks at their balls 9presuming they're male)/

Or a better idea- stick them in a tiger compound and show them what cats can really do. They'lll get the picture.


****ing twats.

[Logo Polish]

Let's not bring down the animals, Si.

Seriously though, it's times like this that I think we need to drag ourselves back to the dark ages and make an example of people who think they can (and at the end of the day usually do) get away with this. The facist dictator in me says that when the people are given enough freedom to be led to believe that people (either themselves or others) can get away with criminal "yobbery" such as this, some of that freedom needs to be taken away - with an iron fist if necessary.

I'm not sure what point you're making here. This is behaviour that's already recognised as against the law (attacking people with stones and bottles).

[Pip Madeley]

Shall we organise the PS Mob to go and kick some ASBO ass?

[cullsoft]

I'm not sure what point you're making here. This is behaviour that's already recognised as against the law (attacking people with stones and bottles).

Point I'm making is that this behaviour seems to have degraded to being an accepted norm - or at least the impression's given that it is. Whether or not it's illegal, lots of the culprits still seem to get away with it; either whatever punishment's given doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent to stop it from being repeated or to stop others from joining in, or there are too many loopholes in the prosecution of these crimes to stop them from getting away with it.

As for my bit on anti-freedom... there's always the problem that whether or not they get punished, they've still done the deed; I'm sure there are hoards of victims of crimes like these who feel that no matter what punishment's given, the fact that the crime itself was able to be commited and irreplacable losses (be they lives or livelihood) were incurred is where the problem lies.

[Si Hunt]

Prison sentences are too lenient to start with - if you take a life by deliberately getting in a car when you shouldn't, you should be properly punished. And a couple of years in jail isn't proper punishment for taking a life. Add to that, the ridiculous "time off for good behaviour" etc, and you barely have a sentence at all. I mean, it's fine in principle, but it's been taken too far; surely the point of it is to act as a detterent to make people behave in prison. And yet you get Paris Hilton getting "time off for good behaviour" off a six week stretch. WHY?! Are we supposed to buy that if she has to serve her full term she'll start playing up a few weeks in?! Ooh, better reduce it then as an incentive for her to "be good"!

And not having enough jails is NOT a valid excuse for reducing sentences. Build more! Send them to an island somewhere! Send them to work abroad! The only reason why this doesn't happen is because prisoners have so many "rights", which is warped because the whole point of prison should be that you have NO rights as punishment for your crime.

Si.

[Ralph]

Shall we organise the PS Mob to go and kick some ASBO ass?

I've got my baseball bat ready

If you need it

[Jason Thompson]

Rights and freedoms come with responsibilities. People who can't exercise their rights in a responsible way deserve to have their freedoms taken away. People who violate others' rights do not deserve to have their rights respected.

The saying 'it's a free country' is a load of crap. It is a country bound by laws, rules and regulations, and so it should be. And criminals, yobs and sick gits who shoot kittens need that brought home to them.

[Logo Polish]

Point I'm making is that this behaviour seems to have degraded to being an accepted norm - or at least the impression's given that it is.

Only amongst the people who commit it - and surely that's the case with any crime, the people who commit them presumably think they're entitled to, however obviously wrong they are, and even if they know there are legal penalties.

Whether or not it's illegal, lots of the culprits still seem to get away with it; either whatever punishment's given doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent to stop it from being repeated or to stop others from joining in, or there are too many loopholes in the prosecution of these crimes to stop them from getting away with it.

Or the detection rates of it aren't very good. That, actually, is one of the main problems with a lot of crime today, in my view, probably more so than concerns about how punitive it is, imo.

As for my bit on anti-freedom... there's always the problem that whether or not they get punished, they've still done the deed; I'm sure there are hoards of victims of crimes like these who feel that no matter what punishment's given, the fact that the crime itself was able to be commited and irreplacable losses (be they lives or livelihood) were incurred is where the problem lies.

I don't see how anyone could be able to apply that principle in actuality. I can understand people saying eg the deterrents need to be better, but you seem to be implying that it should be somehow made physically impossible for people to commit crimes at all? Obviously it's wrong and terrible when things like that happen, but how exactly are you supposed to completely pre-empt them from happening? There has never been any such thing as a society that was capable of doing that - exactly what else can you do other than trying to build in discouragements and penalties into the law?

[Whitney]

At my high school, there was a bomb scare and we had a bomb scare. It wasn't really that "big" of a bomb scare, just someone left a note or something. But it was right after something that made the news so the schools were all on red alert so all of the fire trucks were called. Spread out town, bomb scare, all of the firetrucks but one come to the school. A little bit later, a fire gets called and this lady's house is across town from that one firetruck that's free. It takes so long her house gets burned down and her cat dies. Of course, there is no bomb and never was, but this woman lost everything she had because some kid wrote a note.

He didn't have any friends anymore and everyone ostracised him to the point where he had to move to another town. Sometimes small town attitudes ae awful (at the same school, a muslum was beat up), but in times like this, that was truely the best lesson that kid needed, because it teaches real cause and effect, that real people really think what you did is really disgusting.

[Milky Tears]

How low can you go?

How about this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...al/6265346.stm

CCTV bid to find animal attackers

Police are examining CCTV footage in a bid to trace the people responsible for an attack on animals during a break-in at a wildlife park in Dundee.

A deer was slashed with a craft knife and a terrapin died after it had its eyes poked out during the incident at Camperdown Wildlife Centre.

Keepers discovered the wounded and shocked animals when they arrived for work on Tuesday morning.

They said a female snowy owl was so shaken she had eaten her own chicks.

Elsewhere otters had been beaten with sticks and other animals were too distressed to be approached by keepers.

The break-in was one of a number of security breaches at the premises in the last few months but it is the first time that animals have been physically attacked.

A spokeswoman for Tayside Police said: "These were sickening and despicable attacks on animals.

"It is an offence to cause a protected animal unnecessary suffering which includes animals kept in zoos. This offence can be punishable by imprisonment."

Aileen Clarke, Camperdown Wildlife Centre Officer, said the incident was one of the worst she had seen since she had arrived at the centre in 1999.

She told BBC Scotland's news website: "Its pretty horrendous and morale is very low.

"The staff are very passionate about animals and we do form a close relationship with them and its very, very difficult to understand how anyone would want to do them any harm."

'Beggar belief'

Ms Clarke said the padlocks on the bear enclosure had been tampered with but fortunately were not broken.

"If they had broken the locks to the bear enclosure that would have been very serious. People don't realise how dangerous the animals can be."

She added that although the staff were upset, they had decided they wanted to keep the centre open.

"We all had the attitude that we are not going to let them beat us and we will carry on as normal looking after the animals to the best of our abilities."

Dundee City Council leisure, arts and communities depute convener Councillor Mohammed Asif said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the attack.

He said: "It really does beggar belief that anyone could act in this way.

"I am sure that people in the city will be as outraged as I am when they learn of this despicable incident."

Heightened security is being put in place at the centre and a security review is underway.

In May, police warned youths of the danger of wild animal attacks after two break-ins at a Dundee wildlife park, which is also home to European brown bears, lynx and wolves.

I think we should send Ralph to Dundee with his baseball bat.

[Captain Tancredi]

Next time I suggest they leave the door to the bear enclosure slightly ajar.

[Wayne]

How about this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...al/6265346.stm

It's just bloody awful that is. Too low for words. I'm afraid it just makes me feel really, really angry. To the point where i'd want to do all the same things to them, as they'd done to those defenseless animals. It annoys me so very much that even if they did get caught, probably s w a would happen to them, punishment-wise.
I wish they had got into the bear enclosure, & the bears had mauled them to death. They deserve no less.