This is a difficult one.

Too many symptoms facilitating prejudgement cloud the potential for justice. The harshest order for killing someone “in defence of life” is manslaughter. That still stands in UK law – believe it not.

It seem to me there is more to this “story” than the Daily Mail is prepared to reveal if the police are “considering” (what does that mean?) murder charges? Was the aged man a crook and his “burglaring” visitors were there to reclaim old spoils? I don’t know. The Mail failed to cover that – the MOTIVES, relationships parties may or may not have had. Many questions and a far more detailed profile need to be appended before apt final judgement is made on this and any mainstream “news” item is my view.

Best
OT

But note, the guy had to put up bail, and as far as the law is concerned is getting the suspect treatment. As many here have pointed out, if the story is correctly reported it is hard to see how a single stab could have been unreasonable force in this case. It is hard to see how a “reasonable” requirement even applies here. You’re supposed to be scared and highly unreasonable in a situation like that. Just because the guy Ezra Pound punched didn’t hit his head and cracked it open when he fell doesn’t mean that we should all be capable of controlling the amount of damage in a fight at all times.

Let me again compare with the street cop vs suspect dynamic here, because it is really the crux of the matter. The trained, paid cop is allowed to be scared of everything and go off at the drop of a pin. He is allowed to escalate situations way beyond what they were when he arrived at the scene. There is in effect no reasonable or proportional requirement, because we look at the stress of the situation and allow or excuse almost any behaviour by the officer. The citizen on the other hand is required to be 100 % submissive, follow all instructions without fail, and always remain calm and rational, no matter circumstances and stress factor – an impossible requirement and a blatant double standard.

But there is a very simple explanation for this dynamic. The police officer represents state power, and the citizen is taught complete submissiveness in the face of state power, no matter how unjust or humiliating the treatment, because state power is total. It’s hard to pick between all the examples, but I think most people have seen this recent one where a police officer executes an unarmed pest exterminator with five bullets crawling on all fours, begging for his life.

Yes, he guy was reaching for his pants (to pull them up as he was crawling), but that’s not the point. The point is that the officer after seeing that the guy is not armed with a rifle as had been reported, does not just tell him to lie down and not move and cuff him, but starts an unnecessary game of Simon Says or First Day With The Drill Sergeant, stressing the guy with threats and rapid fire conflicting instructions, until he citizen makes the inevitable mistake.

I wrote “unnecessary game”, but not really because the core function of police is to discipline the population, teach them obedience and submission in the face of state power.

So, tell me, what do you think will happen if a tape turns up showing the 78 year old homeowner, citizen not backed by the state monopoly on violence, and a group of his friends, acting in the way the police do here? Note that the threats and conflicting instructions (like “hands straight in the air”, and also “on the floor in front of you”) go on for a deal longer than the video shows.

https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=7Ooa7wOKHhg

A few more details from Joe Rogan, who isn’t exactly the typical bleeding heart liberal (2:35-5:50).

https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=iLhH5v-OaLI