Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Yob Meat

I have limited myself to no more than one Geek BlogMeat post per month, because I thought it was a cop-out; blogging without purpose, as it were, and everybody does it when they feel guilty about not blogging and need an material to blog about even if they have nothing original to say.

But I really LOVE posting blogmeat, because you find so many really INTERESTING things on the Net. It's difficult to resist the temptation to share.

I have decided that if I don't call it "BlogMeat", I can post it anyway. The alternatives are to write more terribly revealing personal diary stuff (done that), write more about RKBA issues (I wrote an entire RKBA article last week about the REASON article on Gun Control, but it's way too long!) , blog another IPSC match (did that 2 days ago), not write about ANYTHING, or do ... this.

Scotsman.com News - UK - Teacher who fired airgun to ward off gang of yobs loses her job

I don't know what "Yobs" are, but I presume that they are goons, Juvenile Delinquents (we use to call them JDs), gangsters, or street predators ... based on the context in which the term is used in the cited article.

Here's a definition from my online dictionary:

yob (yŏb) pronunciation
n. Chiefly British Slang.

A rowdy, aggressive, or violent young man.

[Alteration of BOY (spelled backward).]



Basically, a teacher in Urmston, Manchester (apparently, in Northern England) felt threatened by a group of 'youngsters' who were hanging around outside her home, and fired an 'air pistol' into the ground to drive them off.

She was arrested, imprisoned, and later fired.

Why?

Here's a cut from the article, and if you don't understand the logic ... neither do I:

Linda Walker, 48, a teacher with 25 years’ service, was dismissed from her £30,000-a-year job after a five-hour disciplinary hearing with senior education officials.

The mother of two, who has received widespread support for her stance against vandals, emerged from the meeting with her career in tatters but vowed to fight her dismissal with an appeal.

Walker, who taught children with behavioural problems at New Park High School in Eccles, Salford, was jailed in March for firing an air pistol at the pavement during a stand-off with youngsters outside her house in Urmston, Manchester. She had been suspended from teaching since August last year.

Walker attended yesterday’s hearing, which was held in private, with officials from Salford’s education department, accompanied by Cliff Anderson, a regional co-ordinator for her union, the NASUWT.

After the hearing, Mr Anderson said: "It is with regret that we announce Mrs Walker has been dismissed from her post.

"With the support of the NASUWT, she intends to appeal. In the interests of ensuring that appeal is not prejudiced, Mrs Walker and the NASUWT will not be making any further comment at this stage."

It is understood the council argued that by having a criminal conviction, Walker had de facto committed gross misconduct and was unfit to be a teacher.

You gotta ask yourself: do you feel lucky?

If you do, and you're in the UK ... think again. There is NO excuse for refusing to be a victim and, after the government is through with you, your employer takes another thousand cuts.

Think your Union can help?
Think again.
They take your union dues, and when you really need them, they leave you swinging in the wind.

Makes you wonder, though. If she was a teacher for 25 of her 48 years, and the 'council' thought you were a fit teacher, what does this little lesson in respect for the sanctity of her home make her an 'unfit' teacher?

Argh!




Remember MAD Magazine? Are you willing to admit that you use to hang around the Safeway store every month, waiting for the next issue to come out?

Remember "Spy VS Spy"? They've still got it, even though the guy who use to write it died last year, in a Game. According to this website, they are still "written and illustrated by The Usual Gang of Idiots".



What's not to like about this?


Fonda Film Banned from Kentucky Theaters

Maybe ... this?




Buy This!



Note to self: Do NOT try to carjack an Oakland Cop!


And finally, just so you don't think I think that America is any better about a woman trying to defend herself with a gun, this from Richmond, Virginia:

Woman gets prison term in fatal shooting

Floyd Jamal Whitaker Jr.'s departure on Sept. 29 from the home he had shared with Carolyn Taylor did not go smoothly.

He had made several trips to his car with boxes of belongings from the house in the 1300 block of Enfield Avenue.

But Taylor, 33, told police that he had choked her during one of his trips back to the dwelling, and she had locked the door behind him and put a .22-caliber pistol in her pocket.

When Whitaker, 28, kicked in the door and choked her again, she fired a shot downward to get him away from her, she said. The bullet lodged in Whitaker's pelvis, and he bled to death from what appeared at first to be a superficial wound.

Taylor pleaded guilty in January to involuntary manslaughter, and Richmond Circuit Judge Richard D. Taylor sentenced her yesterday to serve three years and four months in prison.

Before she was sentenced, Carolyn Taylor apologized to Whitaker's family and added, "I never meant for him to die. . . . The gun that I had took his life, but I feel that it might have saved my life."

Whitaker's parents testified that his departure from the home was part of an effort to get his life on track. "It's like a part of me left," Lloyd Whitaker Sr. told the judge. "He should have been allowed to leave as he was preparing to do and we wouldn't be here."

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Diane Abato told the judge that Taylor could have left the apartment or called police to keep the confrontation from escalating.

"But as so often happens in this city, people arm themselves and think that solves the problem," she said.

(Emphasis added)

This is probably going to sound ignorant to some of you, but I was brought up to believe that choking a person is a good indication that you intend to kill them. Kicking down a locked door is an indicator of intended violence. And trying to choke a person twice goes beyond 'being momentarily carried away with the emotion of the moment.'

If I was Carolyn Taylor, I would think my options were few, and the best one was 'one of us is going to die, and it ain't gonna be me'. I suppose it was 'nice' that she didn't 'intend' to kill Ol' Pretty boy, but you have to admit ... she didn't have to worry about him choking him to death any more, and whatever the final result you have to remember the old adage:


"It is better to be tried by twelve than buried by six"


Hmmm ... let me think ....

Blooey!

Seems to me, arming herself DID solve the problem.

What do YOU think?


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