The law takes some beating

Dec 17 2009 By The Stirrer

TWO recent movies from different sides of the Atlantic highlight the growing fear of urban yobbery.

From the The United States we had Clint Eastwood’s classic Gran Torino in which a grumpy old codger struggles to deal with the aggressive new world around him.

Britain’s response was provided by Michael Caine, who plays the leading role in Harry Brown, a bleak drama set on a council estate where gun-toting drug dealers and muggers rule the streets.

Both films expose the powerlessness of the police – and reflect the desire for revenge among victims of crime.

In a curious case of life imitating art, millionaire businessman Munir Hussein from High Wycombe was jailed this week after he and his brother Tokeer chased down a masked robber who’d burst into the family home.

The offender Walid Salem and his two accomplices were armed with knives and tied up Mr Hussein’s wife and daughter before one of his sons escaped to raise the alarm.

At this point, you could argue that the youngster should have called the police, but who knows what might have happened next?

We’ve all heard about cops failing to respond to 999 calls or read stories about criminals being allowed to walk out of court with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

So Munir’s son called his uncle Tokeer a few doors away and the two older men chased down Salem and gave him a brutal beating with a cricket bat and a hockey stick.

Now you can argue that Munir and his brother used excessive force, and the judge certainly thought so, jailing them for 30 months and 39 months respectively.

But who can honestly blame them for venting their rage on a criminal – with 54 previous convictions, incidentally – who had brought terror into their lives?

If the legal system can’t be trusted to deliver justice, people will inevitably take the law into their own hands.

Across the Pond, there may well have been a different outcome.

Echoing one of Clint’s earlier roles in Dirty Harry, many states now have a “Make My Day” clause, giving homeowners the right to defend their property, with violence if necessary.

The Americans quite rightly recognise that your home is your castle, even if the same right no longer extends to an Englishman.