"The State is Not Your Friend"

Perry de Havilland at Samizdata--as quoted by Kevin at The Smallest Minority--referring to the case of British "Broadcaster and model"  Myleene Klass, who chased some thugs from her Hertsfordshire back yard with a kitchen knife in her hand--she had been preparing dinner--and was "warned by the police" for her troubles.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail reports that

A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.*

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

Someone else sent the email, but he's marked for life.  Because they can.

But, hey, that's in the Land Where England Used To Be, so what?

Well, Tamara offers up this case, which is a textbook example of

1) Why people should be allowed to possess firearms for self-defense, and

2) Why Government Is Not Your Friend.

Lot's of things wrong there, of course, including that the victim was foolish enough to admit to having a gun when the cop stopped him and frisked him fro no reason other than he felt like it.  Maybe it was "Stop and frisk all Brown People Day"; after all the Sullivan Act was intended to keep guns form those scary "dusky people."

(And I can't help but wonder what kind of gun you get for $50 on a New York City street:  Raven .25?  Bryco .22?  Lorcin?)

Say it again:  The State Is Not Your Friend.

At best it is a servant who can do some things really, really, well, but you have to keep an eye on him all the time, lest the Mayor of the Palace become The Emperor.

***

* Notes to my fellow septics:

1)  "Pikey" is a British derogatory term for "Gypsy."  

2) For those who are not up on "rhyming slang": It is "a form of slang in spoken and written English in which a word is replaced by a rhyming word, typically the last word of a two- or three-word phrase with the effect that the meaning of the spoken or written words is not obvious to receivers who are not familiar with the code."  Mr Free Market recently blogged about his new "titfer", or hat.  "Wife" rhymes with "life", which is "struggle and strife", which is shortened to "struggle."  "Yank" rhymes with "tank" which equates to "septic."