The English Have Gone Bonkers

This blog periodically makes fun of England (even though it is one of my favorite nations) for big government and political correctness, but these two stories caused my jaw to drop. First, the Daily Mail reports that a man was jailed for several hours because he was falsely suspected of writing an email that indirectly may have made an un-PC reference to Gypsies. Yes, you read correctly. It is a crime to utter bad thoughts in the nation that gave the world the Magna Carta. To add insult to injury, the investigation cost taxpayers more than $15,000:

A...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 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. The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000. He said two uniformed officers came to his house on a Sunday afternoon and said he would be handcuffed if he did not accompany them to the police station. His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.

This next story may be even crazier. The Guardian reports that a woman - alone with her daughter inside her own home - was warned by police for waving a knife at some thugs who were looking in her window. The police (and this is not a joke) told her that you're not allowed to protect yourself against an intruder. Gee, that must be very comforting for the rape, assault, and burglary victims in the United Kingdom. Let's pray this level of idiocy does not cross the Atlantic:

Myleene Klass has been warned by police for waving a knife at teenagers who were peering into a window of her house late at night. Klass was in the kitchen with her daughter upstairs when she spotted the youths in her garden just after midnight on Friday. She grabbed a knife and banged the windows before they ran away. Hertfordshire police warned her she should not have used a knife to scare off the youths because carrying an "offensive weapon", even in her own home, was illegal. ...Klass's spokesman, Jonathan Shalit, ...told the Sunday Telegraph. "...the police explained to her that even if you're at home alone and you have an intruder, you are not allowed to protect yourself."