Should we have the right to protect our home and property?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:09 am

I am very upset over recent events at Oscar Towers today.

We live down a private road which is the width of a car. Outside the house is fields. Ours is one of only two bungalows down here and the road is a dead end. It is for residents only so any strangers in the road late at night usually means they are up to no good.

Four nights ago, i phoned the police and reported 8 hoodies brazenly selling drugs outside my house without a care in the world. Mr O even stood on the doorstep and watched them only a few feet away and they didn't bat an eyelid. The police know our little road attracts the scroats as there is no street lighting and the field means a quick getaway if caught.

After an hour, the control centre phoned me back and apologised because 'we simply don't have a car to send you'!!! I pointed out that last year, there was an arrest made in our road on a guy caught selling to youths of 14 years old and as soon as the nice weather comes, out they come again. He asked me not to give up on the police and lose my faith in them just because they couldn't get some-one out to me. HA!!!!!! If it was a friday or saturday night i could understand it but it was a tuesday night.

Although there is only two houses in the road, the back garden of the first house in the next road faces my front door. My neighbours are elderly and their garage is at the back facing our house just a few feet away.

The night before last, I went out to the foxes around half past midnight and all was quiet. I stayed up watching a film and around 2 in the morning, our puppy who can here a gnat farting started to growl. I turned the sound off on the tv and i could hear a voice. I opened the front door to find two scroats in the act. They had broken into my elderly neighbours garage and were in their car in the act of what i presume was to steal the car. They must have checked the garage out prior and come with intent as one even had a torch. My neighbours locks on the garage were smashed off as well. This is happening a few feet from me. Here's the thing...... there was only two of them and enough time for me to do some-thing in the time it took them to get out the car, sqeeze past it and run off across the field. I know that i could have at least grabbed one of them and pinned him down while police got there. Even though they were in the act of burglery, criminal damage and theft of a car.....we all know that if i did..... I would have been the one arrested...... so i had to stand there like a numpty while they ran off.

My elderly neighbours are dreadfully upset.....not just because their property has been violated but due to the attitude of the police.

For one...... 'Yes Sir but it's friday night and all our units are tied up on more serious crime'. For two.... 'here's a crime number for you to claim on the insurence so there's no need to come out as it's very likely that we will never catch them'. For three.... 'You mean you have no cctv camera's up Sir'? And that's the end of that.

What is the point any more?

chonsigirl · Post by **chonsigirl** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:58 am

Can you start a neighborhood watch group, oscar?

Snowfire · Post by **Snowfire** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:02 am

I agree. its a depressing state of affairs when the police dont attend and when they do its far too late. I'm pretty sure its down to the targets they are bound to keep. Not enough brownie points in chasing scrotes. I feel very sorry for the elderly. Their vulnerability makes them an easy target and its doubly upsetting when you get no back up from the police

Incidents such as this are not treated nearly as serious enough as the general public demand. Burglary is just a misdemeanour and apparantly doesnt warrant a prison sentance by some judges.

Burglars beware if they decide to visit Mr Snowfires house uninvited. Hospital food is as bad as they say it is. Especially sucked through a straw

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:26 am

chonsigirl;1177277 wrote: Can you start a neighborhood watch group, oscar? I have been asked Chonsi and hilariously the police actually phoned me to ask me as well as apparently 'I'm the best person for the job' :yh_rotfl

Instead, I set up a covert operation last year called ' Scroat Alert'. All us residents have each others phone numbers and especially the elderly, know they can phone us in the middle of the night if there is scroat activity. I then phone the police. When i rang last weekend, the police operator answered the phone and said 'Hello Julie' :wah:

'Scroat Alert' also covers local shops such as the take-away that are open late at night. If a herd of scroats are seen heading towards a particular shop, we can phone ahead and warn them.

However, in the cases i mentioned, this was serious crime and not petty vandalism. I expect the police to come out and i don't expect a patronising idiot basically telling my elderly neighbours it was there own fault because cctv would have detered them. :-5

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 11:43 am

Snowfire;1177279 wrote: I agree. its a depressing state of affairs when the police dont attend and when they do its far too late. I'm pretty sure its down to the targets they are bound to keep. Not enough brownie points in chasing scrotes. I feel very sorry for the elderly. Their vulnerability makes them an easy target and its doubly upsetting when you get no back up from the police

Incidents such as this are not treated nearly as serious enough as the general public demand. Burglary is just a misdemeanour and apparantly doesnt warrant a prison sentance by some judges.

Burglars beware if they decide to visit Mr Snowfires house uninvited. Hospital food is as bad as they say it is. Especially sucked through a straw We now have the situation where 'Criminal Damage' has in effect been de-criminalised. If criminal damage is under £500, the offender no longer has to appear in court and only be served a fixed penalty fine by police and cautioned.

A proposal by government going through now is that if you witness criminal damage taking place, you are required to text your beat bobby. Most elderly people do not have mobile phones for one. By the time they get back to you three days later, the culprit is long gone. Apparently, this new method will help local police gather imfo for trouble hot spots. This is code for : 'If it's an isolated incident, the police won't bother'.

Ironically, we do have cctv outside our house but unfortunately, trained on our gate and the car at the side of the house and not the neighbours garage door. There is every chance that the scroats saw my camera and couldn't care less because they know only too well that police are so slow in this area. It was actually my camera that got the dealer arrested last year.

I make no secret here that there is a baseball bat behind my front door which even visiting police have seen many times. There is also another baseball bat behind a tree next to the front gate for emergencies. Added with 'Mulder' who thinks he's a pitbull, intruders would be foolhardy in our house.

I remember last year when Mr O and myself had been out for several hours. On return we pulled up in the drive and were horrified to see the front door wide open. I asked Mr O if he'd shut it properly on us leaving and he said he thought i'd shut it. I had our friends takings from the take-away from the night before in the house and for a moment, both of us went cold. Then we looked at each other and said together..... 'No...... Mulder's in there. :yh_rotfl

Mind you, with todays pc laws, I'd probably be arrested for letting my dog rip a burglers gonads off :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Peg · Post by **Peg** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:10 pm

The next time you have to call say, "You can either send someone NOW or I can start shooting. It's your choice." Gets them here much faster.

Vesuvius · Post by **Vesuvius** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:52 pm

Yes, try that Oscar! If it works in the US why should it not work here???? About time the police took such things seriously, your post made me hopping mad!:mad:

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 8:34 pm

Peg;1177360 wrote: The next time you have to call say, "You can either send someone NOW or I can start shooting. It's your choice." Gets them here much faster.

cops here don't take threats lightly.

but its also illegal in Canada to own a gun.

and even if it were legal.....that cop would find a way one day, do something to you.

It's what they do....when provoked, threatened......etc.

scholle-kid · Post by **scholle-kid** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:47 am

Put up a couple of motion lights around the two places, yours and the elderly neighbors. The lights can be set to quite a long distance (when your talking about a yard) every time the hoodies come down the road the lights will come on and stay on as long as anything is in motion. then stand at your window taking photos . That really makes criminals nervous. then make copies send a set to the cops and post a set on the local inter net , on a site like topix in your town or city. I live 15 miles out from the nearest town and it happens to be in another county when ever I have had to call '911' I get zero response, once I called for an ambulance for my son that had a bad heart and wound up driving him 75 miles to the hospital myself. and once a guy broke into my house while we weren't home and just trashed the whole place then left a note, 4 days it took for the cops to show up, I wouldn't even let them out of the cop car and told them next time I would let the morgue call them. Of course I heard "you can't take the law into your own hands" blah blah blah... I said sure I can it's called a '6 rounds of lead' and fits perfectly in my hand. . But what I done was the motion lights instead, criminals really hate to have any light shined on their actions.

mikeinie · Post by **mikeinie** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:31 am

I think that we should be able to protect our homes, the laws are far too lenient on the criminals and not in favor enough of those who are just trying to defend themselves.

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:33 am

chonsigirl;1177277 wrote: Can you start a neighborhood watch group, oscar?

We have a neighborhood watch on our street...all the neighbors except two take care of each other. The one neighbor across the street always has the cops at her house for some sort of domestic cr*p going on...we can hear them screaming at each other, etc.:-5 the cops haven't been there in awhile cuz they told the peeps "if you continue to call us over whatever, we will start to fine you". Whatever was going on has leveled off for a bit...but summer will be here soon so I'm sure we will all be hearing the bickering.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:14 am

Vesuvius;1177390 wrote: Yes, try that Oscar! If it works in the US why should it not work here???? About time the police took such things seriously, your post made me hopping mad!:mad: I must explain that i am loathed and hated by my local police. I won't go into details as most members here know my story but it's very boring now. I will just say that i won an investigation into a police officer and my complaint was up-held. I have another one on-going as we speak. I attend police/residents surgeries with the local Tory Councillors to speak on behalf of the residents and cause them as much grief as i can. I can promise you that any one of my local police would dearly dearly love to be able to arrest and charge me. Infact..... there is a situation on-going where i was threatened with arrest a month ago. An absurd situation where my lawyer has told police 'Bring it on'.

All calls to a call centre are taped. If they had you on tape saying you had a gun.... you would for one, find anti-terrorism officers outside you house pointing a gun at your head as we do have armed police in our city and for two, you would be arrested for making threats to the police.

The problem in our area is that we only have 6 units on for the whole county. They don't like anyone knowing this but i have heard this as an excuse from the police themselves when they have not attended other problems. When they say they are on more serious crimes, they actually mean they are booking drunk and disorderlys as this is an easy arrest and notch on their truncheon for them.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:31 am

scholle-kid;1177475 wrote: Put up a couple of motion lights around the two places, yours and the elderly neighbors. The lights can be set to quite a long distance (when your talking about a yard) every time the hoodies come down the road the lights will come on and stay on as long as anything is in motion. then stand at your window taking photos . That really makes criminals nervous. then make copies send a set to the cops and post a set on the local inter net , on a site like topix in your town or city. I live 15 miles out from the nearest town and it happens to be in another county when ever I have had to call '911' I get zero response, once I called for an ambulance for my son that had a bad heart and wound up driving him 75 miles to the hospital myself. and once a guy broke into my house while we weren't home and just trashed the whole place then left a note, 4 days it took for the cops to show up, I wouldn't even let them out of the cop car and told them next time I would let the morgue call them. Of course I heard "you can't take the law into your own hands" blah blah blah... I said sure I can it's called a '6 rounds of lead' and fits perfectly in my hand. . But what I done was the motion lights instead, criminals really hate to have any light shined on their actions. It's a great idea SC but in Britain, it is against the law to take photo's of anyone under 17 years old unless they are commiting a crime. If no crime can be proved, it will be you that ends up arrested for photographing them. We also live smack bang next to a primary school and nursery that has 200 kids going in and out every day. When we set our cctv camera's up, we had to consult the police as we could have been in serious trouble if a parent reported that we were filming the children. This is why our camera's can only be on the gate and the car in the drive. If my neighbour were to put a camera on his garage, it would film children as they walk past it to and fro school. I also don't see why anyone especially the elderly should have to fork out £1000 for security equipment just because the police here are under-manned.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:01 am

Its a fine line between protecting your property and the integrity of your neighborhood (which is questionable already

) and liability.

Unfortunately criminals have civil rights too.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:00 am

Nomad;1177685 wrote: Its a fine line between protecting your property and the integrity of your neighborhood (which is questionable already

) and liability.

Unfortunately criminals have civil rights too. True Nomad.... very true. We live in a nice area where there should be no crime but the scroats go to nice area's for easy pickings.

This countries policing is down the tiolet. Seriously under-manned and under-funded......until there is a G20 summit of course and then they find thousands of the buggers from no-where.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:03 am

oscar;1177714 wrote: True Nomad.... very true. We live in a nice area where there should be no crime but the scroats go to nice area's for easy pickings.

This countries policing is down the tiolet. Seriously under-manned and under-funded......until there is a G20 summit of course and then they find thousands of the buggers from no-where.

Im sure your neighbors have spent their fair share of porch standing head shaking time watching you. Am I right ?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:05 am

Nomad;1177720 wrote: Im sure your neighbors have spent their fair share of porch standing head shaking time watching you. Am I right ? My neighbours have been known to take small children inside the house on occassions....yes.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:08 am

oscar;1177724 wrote: My neighbours have been known to take small children inside the house on occassions....yes.

You eat small children for breakfast ?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:14 am

Nomad;1177728 wrote: You eat small children for breakfast ?
I couldn't eat a whole one. I have been known to run manically round the field outside my house when Italy score in the world cup. Apart from that, I'm a valued member of the community.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:22 am

oscar;1177736 wrote: I couldn't eat a whole one. I have been known to run manically round the field outside my house screaming lawnmowers are falling from the sky. I'm a valued member of the community.

I can imagine.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:39 am

Nomad;1177749 wrote:

I can imagine. They only have to read the papers to know what i'm doing. How many people can say that? :wah:

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:46 am

Is this your cat Oscar?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:48 am

qsducks;1177777 wrote: Is this your cat Oscar?

:yh_rotfl No..... Mine is a little more insane

Attached files

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:51 am

I found Nomad's dog...

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:55 am

qsducks;1177784 wrote: I found Nomad's dog...

No...... that is Nomad :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:59 am

oscar;1177794 wrote: No...... that is Nomad :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:23 am

oscar;1177794 wrote: No...... that is Nomad :yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

And.......you're point is ???

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:25 am

Nomad;1177839 wrote: And.......you're point is ??? Who styles your hair?

qsducks · Post by **qsducks** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:48 am

oscar;1177840 wrote: Who styles your hair?

She does...

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:28 pm

qsducks;1177852 wrote: She does...

:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 4:21 pm

ha oscar. When my ex wrote my car off you wouldn't believe it . He got a visit at the hospital by his inspector, a senior sgt and a another sgt. to see how injured he was because he needed to get back to work because they were so under staffed. How under staffed? Well it takes 26 people to run a 24 hour station on a fortnight roster. And that's just to get one vehicle on the road. For a fornight roster they had 12.:-2 Pete would not allow his members (himself and two for a 12 hour night shift ) out on the road. .......simply too dangerous. unless it was a road accident or an emergency, not something he would choose to do on a regular basis.

It's not the police fault it's government and heirachy.

another smaller station 16 hour and on call has one personall this week. He has to be off at some point and he needs sleep. The nearest back up is 57 km away or to call out someone on holidays. triple or quadruple time.................heirachy would prefer their members to wait half an hour for back up rather than spend some money to back up their member properly.

but I believe prevention is better than cure. Camera mounted to your house (most coppers can identify the offenders because they are known to them) and yes i have a baseball bat as well. But I'd want to be sure that I get in first. and a big dog helps.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:48 am

oscar;1177247 wrote: I opened the front door to find two scroats in the act. They had broken into my elderly neighbours garage

You are allowed to (it could be considered your *duty*) to arrest them.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:49 am

oscar;1177587 wrote: in Britain, it is against the law to take photo's of anyone under 17 years old unless they are commiting a crime.

That is absolute rubbish. Where on *earth* do you get this idea?

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:56 am

oscar;1177572 wrote: my local police would dearly dearly love to be able to arrest and charge me

Well, don't do anything naughty, then!

oscar;1177572 wrote: i was threatened with arrest a month ago. An absurd situation where my lawyer has told police 'Bring it on'.

"Threatened with arrest"? I am unsure about this. If you have committed an arrestable offence, you should be arrested. If not, it's an empty threat.

Your "lawyer" appears to have the right idea. As there seems to be some evidence of previous difficulties, you can be sure that procedure is most likely to be absolutely adhered to should you be arrested for something, which is nice.

The law is far above the police, which is as it should be.

oscar;1177572 wrote: All calls to a call centre are taped.

This is also a good thing.

oscar;1177572 wrote: If they had you on tape saying you had a gun.... you would for one, find anti-terrorism officers outside you house pointing a gun at your head as we do have armed police in our city and for two, you would be arrested for making threats to the police.

If I 'phone the police, and say I have a gun - well, they should already know that. If I threaten someone with it, then they are quite right to take action!

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:46 am

Bill Sikes;1178186 wrote: That is absolute rubbish. Where on *earth* do you get this idea? From many years of dealing with senior police officers.

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:49 am

Bill Sikes;1178184 wrote: You are allowed to (it could be considered your *duty*) to arrest them. 9 out of 10 'citizens arrests' result if the arrestee being arrested and prosecuted for assault. This is due to the fact that the law insists the police investigate counter-allegations. If the 'arrested' makes a counter-allegation of assault, the police are duty bound to investigate it. If the 'arrested' can then get 3 of his pals to say they were there and saw you assault him, you will be charged. Fact.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:54 am

oscar;1178230 wrote: From many years of dealing with senior police officers.

Then, for many years, Senior Police Officers have been wrong.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:56 am

oscar;1178234 wrote: If the 'arrested' can then get 3 of his pals to say they were there and saw you assault him, you will be charged. Fact.

This could be true in certain cases, but there's likely to be other evidence in most cases.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:00 am

oscar;1178234 wrote: 9 out of 10 'citizens arrests' result if the arrestee being arrested and prosecuted for assault.

I would very much like to see where you got this information from - it would mean that this happens to 9/10 of all PCSOs, for instance. It isn't true. What is your source?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:06 am

Bill Sikes;1178241 wrote: I would very much like to see where you got this information from - it would mean that this happens to 9/10 of all PCSOs, for instance. It isn't true. What is your source? I've sent you the evidence in private message.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:10 am

oscar;1178246 wrote: I've sent you the evidence in private message.

Thank you. You are not, though, 9/10 people!

Here is a very brief guide:

Citizen's Arrest - TheSite.org

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:51 am

Bill Sikes;1178250 wrote: Thank you. You are not, though, 9/10 people!

Here is a very brief guide:

Citizen's Arrest - TheSite.org Trust me, in the past year, i have learned more about the legalities of citizens arrest than most. However, it is useless if a counter allegation of assault is made by the 'arrested' as police are duty bound to follow it up even five weeks after the event.

I may not be 9 out of 10 myself but from people who have contacted me and still are.... there is evidence that this is true. The Shadow Home Secretary has proposals to change the law so 'public spirited' folk do not end up persecuted nby the police.

I can not post his comments as they are private e mails to me.

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:04 am

oscar;1178263 wrote: 9 out of 10 .... there is evidence that this is true

I'm sure it's true in some cases - however, I wouldn't put it even as high as 1/10 in general. Do you know of any hard statistics on numbers of Citizens Arrests?

Post by **Oscar Namechange** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 10:19 am

Bill Sikes;1178333 wrote: I'm sure it's true in some cases - however, I wouldn't put it even as high as 1/10 in general. Do you know of any hard statistics on numbers of Citizens Arrests? It's something that the SHS is working on right now. We hope to have some statistics ready for the General Election. I've done some BBC interviews on it and my last was BBC Radio Nottingham. In each radio debate, there has been a phone in at the end and it's been alarming of the people that have come forward or it has happened to but did not know how to complain.

The senior officers who investigated on my behalf did tell us that off the record.... many officers are target driven and all common sense goes out the window if they see what they think is a quick caution and notch on their targets. I understand that it is difficult for officers who have to perform to targets but unfortunately you will always get the one's who will go for a quick arrest even if for example, a 999 call tells them different.

The only way this can be stopped is to do away with police targets so officers can police sensibly and with common sense.

gmc · Post by **gmc** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:02 pm

Scotland and Northern Ireland

There is no legal definition of a citizens arrest in Scotland, however common law states that anyone committing an offence can be detained using the minimum force necessary in the circumstances.

you can also defend yourself. An acquaintance of ours was assaulted crossing the meadows in edinburgh, being something of a martial arts enthusiast she hospitalised two and the third got away. The police didn't prosecute but the ruling body of her sport kicked her out and stopped her competing as they reckoned she was skilled enough not to have needed to use such force-she did concede she lost her temper a bit. Bit misogynistic though don't you think? I mean they weren't after her handbag so surely the best thing to do is put them down as quickly as possible and make sure they wouldn't be getting up in a hurry.

posted by oscar

If the 'arrested' makes a counter-allegation of assault, the police are duty bound to investigate it. If the 'arrested' can then get 3 of his pals to say they were there and saw you assault him, you will be charged. Fact.

Yiou can ubderstand why they have to charge them but it's a good argument for keeping jury trials even in "minor" assault cases.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:06 pm

key words here are "reasonable force".

Something my husband taught me long ago about force when it comes to defending yourself. Everyone makes the mistake of going into how much force they used during an arrest or defending themselves. YOU DON"T DO THAT!!!!! If you are asked how hard did you hit him ...........You say .........."As hard as I could" . That's it!!!! no more!!!! There is no measurement to "as hard as I could." If you begin describing how you thought about it then you are liable in the sense of premeditation and calculation ...........the Onus is then on you to prove that it was necessary.

It's "as hard as I could" ...........remember it.

here's something funny about being arrested.

Nomad · Post by **Nomad** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:24 pm

scholle-kid · Post by **scholle-kid** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:18 pm

oscar;1177587 wrote: It's a great idea SC but in Britain, it is against the law to take photo's of anyone under 17 years old unless they are commiting a crime. If no crime can be proved, it will be you that ends up arrested for photographing them. We also live smack bang next to a primary school and nursery that has 200 kids going in and out every day. When we set our cctv camera's up, we had to consult the police as we could have been in serious trouble if a parent reported that we were filming the children. This is why our camera's can only be on the gate and the car in the drive. If my neighbour were to put a camera on his garage, it would film children as they walk past it to and fro school. I also don't see why anyone especially the elderly should have to fork out £1000 for security equipment just because the police here are under-manned.

I am thinking that it is pretty much the same here as far as minors and photographing them. Just use your camera phone and "if" no crime is photographed then delete the photos and swear on your great great great granny's grave that you were just chatting with a friend named SK in the USA the whole time ,,, lol,,, I get so angry about the laws and the way minors are allowed free rein to do and act and say anything and the law abiding adults just suppose to swallow and ask for more....:-5:-5:-5

scholle-kid · Post by **scholle-kid** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 8:28 pm

oscar;1177587 wrote: It's a great idea SC but in Britain, it is against the law to take photo's of anyone under 17 years old unless they are commiting a crime. If no crime can be proved, it will be you that ends up arrested for photographing them. We also live smack bang next to a primary school and nursery that has 200 kids going in and out every day. When we set our cctv camera's up, we had to consult the police as we could have been in serious trouble if a parent reported that we were filming the children. This is why our camera's can only be on the gate and the car in the drive. If my neighbour were to put a camera on his garage, it would film children as they walk past it to and fro school. I also don't see why anyone especially the elderly should have to fork out £1000 for security equipment just because the police here are under-manned.
I am in total agreement with your statement " I also don't see why anyone especially the elderly should have to fork out " any amount , because cops don't or won't do the job they are hired to do and laws are seemly on the criminals side. I'm not sure how much "£1000 " is in American $$ but 2 motion lights I got up were $30 bucks each and just replaces a regular porch light in the same outlet. But i agree

Bill Sikes · Post by **Bill Sikes** » Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:35 am

scholle-kid;1179854 wrote: I am thinking that it is pretty much the same here as far as minors and photographing them.

Except that there is no law whatsoever in the UK making it illegal to photograph *anyone* in a public place, no matter what their age - with the exceptions of taking pictures of unclothed minors in certain situations, and photographs of police *in certain situations* "which are likely to be used by terrorists in furtherance of their crimes".

So, you can legally photograph anyone, in normal circumstances.

What can't *you* photograph in the 'States?