The Tories want to give people who kill burglars while defending their home more protection from prosecution, according to the shadow home secretary.
Chris Grayling promised a review of householders' rights to defend themselves against intruders.
He said there were some cases where it may be "proportionate" to take a housebreaker's life - such as when someone is attacked in his home by an armed intruder.
However, he added there would always be some circumstances where people needed to be prosecuted because they had gone "over the top", for instance if they pursued a fleeing burglar and shot him dead.
"We have long debated and argued within the Conservative Party that there should be higher threshold built around the idea of proportionate force," Mr Grayling told Sky News political editor Adam Boulton.
"What we intend to do if we win the election is reopen the issue.
"The Government was supposed to have dealt with this two years ago, but it didn't change the law in the end.
"We want to go back and look at the law again and look at if 'grossly disproportionate' force is the right measure.
"I want it to be absolutely clear to the householder that if something happens to you the law will protect you if you defend your interests.
"People aren't clear on that at the moment."
Mr Grayling said he would like to change police rules to prevent cases where householders went out into the street to remonstrate with trouble-makers and found themselves being arrested.
"I have come across numerous cases over the years where a householder confronts troublemakers in the street and the troublemakers say 'He threatened us' and the police, because of the rule-book, have to arrest that person, take them to the cells and very often caution them," Mr Grayling said.
"It is completely the wrong way round.
"We need police officers to be able to say 'Don't be so stupid. That's not right. Let's sort it out here and now', not to feel that the rule-book says that if a complaint has been made, no matter how spurious, the person has to be arrested."
He accused the Government of "systematically undermining" the criminal justice system, claiming official figures show more than half of people committing violence against the person are cautioned, rather than charged.
The figures also show that 40% of all offences are now dealt with by a warning, caution or fixed penalty notice.
"Twelve years of Labour government has systematically undermined our criminal justice system, allowing more criminals to get away with it and leaving more and more victims with a huge sense of injustice," Mr Grayling said.
"We desperately need change if we are to rebuild public confidence."
I'm assuming this article deals with the U.K but i'm personally tired of hearing stories of homeowners being punished for defending themselves against robbers in their own homes. There are situations where the homeowners
go too far such as the situation in my country where an older man killed a young man by stabbing him while the kid was begging for his life and trying to escape through the window the homeowner wouldn't let him go and pulled him back from the window to stab him some more and he was found to have stabbed him I think about 50 times. That's over the top but I find this current situation of criminals having more rights than their victims appalling.
While I don't think robbery and breaking and entering are crimes deserving of death I find it hard to sympathize with criminals.
I'm assuming this article deals with the U.K but i'm personally tired of hearing stories of homeowners being punished for defending themselves against robbers in their own homes. There are situations where the homeowners
go too far such as the situation in my country where an older man killed a young man by stabbing him while the kid was begging for his life and trying to escape through the window the homeowner wouldn't let him go and pulled him back from the window to stab him some more and he was found to have stabbed him I think about 50 times. That's over the top but I find this current situation of criminals having more rights than their victims appalling.
While I don't think robbery and breaking and entering are crimes deserving of death I find it hard to sympathize with criminals.
Let some idiot try to get into my house! He may leave with a TV but with one less arm! And that would be hard to run with a TV and one arm.
I think more appropriate a title would be Tories: We'll say anything that the Government doesn't currently do in order to get elected.
lol It does make me laugh they decided now they are going to change the law. I think everyone in England should boycott the elections and establish our own government.
I was looking at myself talking to myself and I realized this conversation...I was having with myself looking at myself was a conversation with myself that I needed to have with myself.
So, essentially, the Tories are saying 'According to the circumstances of the case, if the burglar has put the householder in a kill-or-be-killed situation, the householder can kill the burglar without fear of legal reprisal, provided the burglar was not running away at the time'.
Sounds... just like the existing rules of self-defence.
So, essentially, the Tories are saying 'According to the circumstances of the case, if the burglar has put the householder in a kill-or-be-killed situation, the householder can kill the burglar without fear of legal reprisal, provided the burglar was not running away at the time'.
Sounds... just like the existing rules of self-defence.
It's spin, in reality the Tories and Labour have similar policies, only that the Tories would take a piss on the Lower Class as usual.
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