Judge says burglar was 'brave'

[boschy]

Latest looney judge he has let a serial burglar off scot-free and said he was "brave" to go burgling.... judge has also announced that he expects to be pilloried for having said so! Well at least he's right there, I guess.

Link?

He is a loony - here - Daily Mail link

oh thanks oakmaiden, I'm rubbish at links!

Maybe the judge may think differently if a few 'brave' burglars broke into his home, rifled through his personal possessions before deciding which things to steal to feed their (i assume) equally 'brave' drug habit?

I know absolute scumbags who are very brave and some very decent people who are cowards. The words should be divorced from morality, and would be if people weren't so childish and afraid of real-life nuance vs fairytale good/evil.

Cowardice - lack of courage

Courage - the ability to control fear when facing danger or pain (Oxford dictionary)

Burglars must control and overcome fear when facing danger. Burglars do display a certain amount of courage. It really is that simple.

Whether you believe they are really, really, really bad people - I mean the worst people ever to walk the earth and they should be hung, drawn and quartered in the city centre on a sunday afternoon - is completely irrelevant as to whether they display courage or cowardice.

I would say that breaking into someones home in dead of night when people are sleeping, or in the day when they are out is hardly a brave thing to do Tarai.

Tarai. That is complete nonsense. I know a teenager who is in prison for burglary, he broke into a house when a young mother and child were there alone, he was watching the house and waited for the father to leave for work before he entered. That is not bravery.

So you think breaking into someone's house through an open window while an unknown amount and type of people sleep upstairs before proceeding to tip toe around trying to steal things knowing that at any moment someone could burst through the door swinging a bat or a knife and kill you well within the law would not induce feelings of fear and panic that would need to be overcome? Of course they do.

Stop being so emotional. Courage is simply a word to describe overcoming feelings of fear and anxiety to do what you want to do. To say that a 15 year old doing the above doesn't have these feelings which he then overcomes to commit the burglary is ridiculous. It is just you feeling bad about calling people you don't like a word that you associate with good things.

The reality is, committing a burglary will always involve a certain amount of fear and this must be overcome. Depending on the level of risk and the person involved the level of courage needed will vary, but to suggest that if for whatever reason you were forced to do one yourself you would not be absolutely shitting yourself breaking into someone's house in the middle of the night while they're upstairs asleep is deluded.

And tarai you are being deluded if you think that every burglar feels fear and anxiety when breaking into someone's house because I know from experience that isn't the case.

Anyhow regardless of the dictionary definition the judges comments are ludicrous. The context in which he used the word "brave" suggests that burglary should be commended. It's like well you could have gone to a dodgy loan shark to feed your drug habit but no you are better than that you are brave and break into people's houses. The judge needs sectioning.

What "experience"? Did you used to burgle houses?

He didn't use the word "brave" either, he said it took a huge amount of courage. The context appears to be that of a man who became addicted to hard drugs while in prison, who had become clean since committing the burglaries and who the judge felt he could take a chance on as prison would do more harm than good to both him and eventually society when he got out in 2 years. I believe commenting on the courage it took was simply a factual remark about the courage it took. Which as I said I believe is often a fair amount.

Why he made the remark I don't know, maybe to boost self-esteem (it was bad and wrong but it took courage, there are so many good things you could do with that instead etc), or it could have been just a puzzled throwaway remark by a man who deals with criminals day in day out and struggles to understand why they do the things they do.

God no! No I must put straight that I have most definitely not burgled or stolen anything!

I have a relative who is currently on a mission to destroy her life and is mixing with very unsuitable people. Her boyfriend and his friends just burgle on a whim, sometimes for something to do. Bravery and courage do not come into it. They are not even bothered about getting caught. They have all had shitty upbringings and have been let down by lots of people but that's a whole other thread.

I agree with you tarai and I speak as someone who was burgled just last week.Bravery and courage do not necessarily lead to someone doing a good deed. I understand what this judge was trying to do, basically he thinks by keeping this guy out of prison and clean he hopes he will not re offend.Unfortunately I'm not surprised by the kneejerk reactions here and elsewhere in the press.

tarai Would you consider a rapist to be brave for risking a kick in the bollocks or an STD, or a drunk driver brave for risking a car crash?

It's a very slippery slope that you are on.

Well, it is pretty 'brave' to do that. Being brave doesn't mean being good.

Depends on the definition of 'Brave' I guess. A quick google suggests that the basic definition is 'ready to face and endure danger or pain'.

However in normal modern conversation 'Brave' is a positive attribute so it wasn't really an appropriate use of the word in this case.

I don't think it was brave - foolhardy, and not worried about being caught or any consequences - which was just about right, given the outcome.

I quite accept he'd had a hard life, drugs etc and going inside would probably send him back down that path. But there seems to be no punishment, and I very much doubt that a kind word from the judge would make any difference to his self-esteem - he'd more likely be thinking what a stupid old buffer, I got one over on him.

Meanwhile, the victims must feel an incredible sense of injustice.

I do think "brave" or "courageous" carry the sense not just of the ability to overcome fear but also of some sort of elevation of purpose.

(Of course sometimes some might say - for example Sir Humphrey to Jim Hacker - that a decision is a very brave one, really meaning a dangerous or foolish one, but that's really an ironic usage.)

So while you could refer to a burglar as audacious, or even fearless, I think courageous is just wrong.

I think the judge was being witless and moronic.

Judges remarks taken out of context please read full report.

Agree with Tarai. But I also think that maybe it does become, like Bonny Bumble said, almost routine for some habitual offenders, and maybe they aren't terribly scared of the consequences.

That to me is the sad part. When the consequences of committing a crime are no worse than the hell you're living in now.

The comment has been taken out of context and therefore everyone is just making the judge out to be an idiot who doesn't think before he speaks. Well put Tarai. I could have taken it the wrong way, but after much thought after reading this news article on the BBC website I soon realised what was meant by the comment. It wasn't 'brave' and 'courageous' in the positive sense....

Well I read the whole report and I am afraid I STILL think the judge is a loon.

Agree with beeny, read the full report. If your source is the Daily Mail then you really ought to widen your resources! The judge may have made some obtuse comments that to the general public will seem wrong but his sentencing was right and may rehabilitate this offender. We all know that prison is a breeding ground for criminality and while many deserve to be locked up some can be helped. Please don't let the Daily Mail be your judgement!