Many people are quite rationally very scared of feral yobs and street hooligans. But even more are just as reasonably afraid of the legal consequences if they do show the courage to act. Cases like this are all too typical:
A former soldier who made a citizen’s arrest on a yob terrorising his home was then arrested himself – on suspicion of kidnap.
Frank McCourt endured a three-month legal ordeal while the yob and his gang went unpunished.
Last night outraged campaigners attacked the British legal system for persecuting the innocent while yobs are allowed to run rampant.Mr McCourt, 57, took action after a pack of youths hurled stones, sticks, mud and eggs at his house as his wife Maria cowered inside.
He called a police hotline – but was kept on hold for 45 minutes. He went out to look for a police officer on the beat – but found none.
So he grabbed one of the yobs and asked his name, telling him he was making a citizen’s arrest.
Within minutes police turned up and arrested Mr McCourt, who served for 12 years in Northern Ireland and Somalia. No official action is believed to have been taken against the yobs.
As I wrote last year:
In practice, Britain now boasts two parallel systems of law and punishment: one for those with jobs, careers and reputations, whose lives can be ruined in a moment of anger - like Bill Clifford, the World War II veteran who scared off with a replica handgun the thugs who had long plagued him as they broke down his door, and hanged himself the day before his subsequent court appearance; another for the hooligans and louts with no jobs or reputations to worry about, who fear no law but know all their human rights.
Our legal system seems indifferent to violence and hooliganism, and only to awaken when someone stands up to the yobs. No wonder so few do.
