The murder of Albertina Choules, whose burned body was found at her home, is just the latest tragic example from the UK.
As reported:
Residents say Albertina Choules, known as Tina, had recently faced problems with vagrants camping in the tranquil Buddhist paradise she had created in the woodland around her home, and of people taking wood. The 81-year-old was killed and “set on fire” in the grounds of her rural home in Marlow Bottom, Buckinghamshire, in a suspected burglary gone wrong. A police officer responding to Mrs Choules’s 999 call, made around 6.30am on Wednesday, was seriously injured after a man armed with a machete attacked him outside the property.
Here an 81 year old woman was killed and set on fire in her own home, and a responding police officer was seriously harmed as well. This sad story teaches many lessons, and hopefully by learning from those lessons, such tragedies can be avoided in the future.
“Property crimes” often become crimes of violence.
All too often, people who report or comment on the news will fail to grasp that a crime against a person’s property is often also a deadly threat to that person. So many attempts at stealing property quickly become murders criminal is not satisfied with the property available to steal. In other cases, a criminal will see a burglary as an opportunity to also commit a rape. It should be surprising that a criminal who is willing to commit one type of crime may commit another out of convenience, to avoid being identified, or merely for “fun.”
The police can’t be counted on to save a person.
Here, the Ms. Choules called 999 (the British equivalent of 911), and the officer arrived only after Ms. Choules had been murdered and her body was on fire. The fact is that police rarely arrive on time to help a person in need, as police take minutes (or longer) to arrive while a murder can be committed in a matter of seconds. The police should be thought of as a means of deterring crime in general by investigating it after the fact – not as saviors who will swoop in and rescue a person whose life is in jeopardy. Indeed, many cases from the past show us that the police often fail to answer 911 calls, or fail to arrive for hours, or end up killing the wrong person upon arriving.
Violence is a sad part of human nature, and pretending otherwise is unwise.
We humans are a violent species, and have been doing terrible things to each other since before recorded history. Those who try to ignore that fact and life in a fantasy world are only setting themselves up to victims. Until and unless human nature changes, there will always be a portion of society that is willing to use force to harm other members of society.
Gun control means the violent attacker will have the upper hand
Here there was not a gun in sight. Yet, there was still a gruesome murder of an elderly woman and a police officer who nearly suffered the same fate. That is not surprising, as the younger and physically stronger attacker was still able to commit his crime without the need for a gun. Indeed, just about every young male is physically able to kill an elderly woman with their bare hands, and almost no elderly woman can effectively fight back without a gun. We have seen such a situation play out time and time again in Britain, where elderly or physically weaker people are horribly murdered by younger and stronger criminals. We have also seen many cases where armed elderly people have been able to defend themselves against younger attackers, thanks to their gun. Armed self defense works, plain and simple.