Reasonable Force?

I welcome the new stance by Government that have-a-go heroes will be able to get immunity if they were to catch an intruder on their property or prevent a crime taking place in the street.

They claim as long as reasonable force is used then it's okay.

But what is 'Reasonable Force'?

If someone were to smash a window and break into my house then I think it's open season. It's almost kill or be killed if you ask me. You don't know what they will do if the 'reasonable force' you use is no good.

Attack is the best form of defence.

This thinking has reminded me of the incident in my work last year. A great worker and colleague of mine was fired because he dared two abusive customers who were threatening to attack him to come into his kitchen while he had a knife in his hand.

The situation was blown totally out of proportion and my colleague was arrested and went to court. The case was later abolished after there was a contrast in witness statements.

All he did was go to work that day and had two customers threaten him because he warned them they could get burnt if they were to touch the hot pans and told them to wait until a member of staff came along. Hell, they weren't even customers. They had only just walked into the restaurant and didn't order.

He ended up being abused verbally and threatened with violence and to scare them off he had the knife in his hand and told them to walk into the kitchen with their abuse.

If I had two guys threatening me in that way - I would have done the same thing.

Right or wrong? I don't know. What I do know is there was no 'force' involved and that particular situation was resolved as they left the premises in haste in order to get more friends.

You see - these idiots did wrong and others had to pay for it.

And the thing that makes me wonder is - what would have happened had it happened today rather than eighteen months ago?

I know a lot of things would have been better for me and I know it would have been a lot better for my ex-colleague as well.