Why should I lock my doors?

[Mag]

I completely agree with tlady on this one. (Although I don't live in Lerwick, and it might be different there.) I believe that strong communities where folk know their neighbours and expect honesty are a much better deterrent than locks. And locked doors are definitely inconvenient; if we locked our doors then our friends and family wouldn't be able to have a cup of tea when they popped along while we were out.

 

I lived in London for 3 years. All the folk in our bit of the street had fancy burglar alarms and locks, except us. We had a simple Yale lock on the door and no window locks. In the time we were there, everyone had at least one break-in except us. Did the local thieves figure that if we didn't have locks we didn't have anything worth stealing?

[Ghostrider]

Re: JustMe.

 

That's fair enough. Adequate help should be available to those who genuinely want to give up, but by the same token something heavy and unpleasant needs to fall on the heads of those who believe it is their right to ingest whatever they wish and fund it however they wish.

 

Its a highly debatable point just how many actually genuinely wish to quit though, its a very fashionable "excuse" for continuing, for some to claim they want to but "can't" due to the lack of this or that. Were the facilities actually there, I suspect they'd simply find some other "excuse" to continue as previously. Its also a heavily over-used "reason" to "justify" an individual's behaviour, and hopefully elicit a level of sympathy, during court appearances, regardless of the integrity of any such claim.

 

The situation at present is a shambles, what little help there is is disjointed and minimal, and jail time is undertaken in conditions no worse, and in some cases better than that person lives in on the outside, plus their drug of choice is equally available within as outside. It shouldn't be a surprise that nothing is "working".

 

By all means provide facilities where those who genuinely want to quit can go for assistance as and when needed, but they should not be "forced" upon a user, as seems to be the case by the local court at least. The court should have no power to make attending any such place obligatory and part of any sentence, or having attended be grounds to reduce a sentance. To do so simply makes them be seen as the "soft option" by many, which clutters them up with folk going through the motions to appease the court, but with no desire or intent to change their habits, and in doing so deny, or at least it make more difficult for those genuinely using the service to get from it what they need.

 

Until and unless full and adequate help facilities are provided, all we can do is what's being done, give someone who takes the crime route to fund an addiction several chances to hopefully mend their ways, but if after a time or two inside they still continue, the book needs to be thrown at them, and thrown hard. The only route to take when repeated jail terms make no odds, is to make that person fear being put back in jail more than they fear getting through the next few hours without a fix. By the time someone is driven to that level of desperation, fear is the only thing left which will control them.

[Guest Anonymous]

^^^Ghostrider, my dear chap, this view you have of addictions doesn't include any help for the likes of me.

 

For so many years, which are totally uncountable now, I have had a serious desire to stop speaking sharn, but there has been little or no help available for this addiction. Even moving to a different country has failed to find a cure.

I really do want to give up this horrible habit of speaking sharn, writing sharn, etc.. Although I have to admit that my worst crime, linked to this habit, is my persistent annoyance of the mods.

But, where is the help?????

Certainly not from the pages of Shetlink, where speaking sharn seems to be the norm.

 

Onywye,,

Having added a suitable shovel of sharn to the topic.

 

A'm Geeng.

 

[tarotangel]

I do agree wi Para Handy about the genie being let out of the bottle. If drugs really are the No1. factor in thefts & burglaries then why isn't more done to tackle the problem at source? Yeah I ken simplistic view but it's what should be being looked at.

 

And again yeah I ken those days are gone but why the hell should we have to lock our doors?

 

A lot of folk on Bressa don't lock their doors, but quite a number have said once the tunnel is up and running they will be locking them as they can't trust whats comes through the tunnel 100%, and I'll probably be doing the same.

 

That's a pretty, damn sad indictment on the state that we're in.

[tlady]

Sorry tlady but someone let the genie out of the bottle I just don’t get how you are going to get the genie back in. drink drugs and theft are here to stay. If someone has entered you house and nicked your TV and the door was open you would have nobody to blame but your self for not locking your door. A thief is just a thief. I can’t see why anyone would want the make the crime any easier for them

 

 

But ParaHandy this is exactly what I'm saying .. why is it my fault?

 

 

Yesterday morning on BBC they showed 2 police persons with a loudhailer going round the houses reminding folk to lock their doors and windows... surely they'd be better employed catching the scumbags that's doing the break ins.

[KOYAANISQATSI]

If drugs really are the No1. factor in thefts & burglaries then why isn't more done to tackle the problem at source?

 

Yet prison remains a source for keeping up a habit:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4882646.ece

 

SCOTLAND’S jails could hold 1,400 more prisoners if they were not obliged to prescribe methadone to addicts under human rights legislation, it has been revealed.

 

Mike Ewart, head of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), says hundreds of cells have space, but the number of prisoners held is limited by the cost of healthcare staff to administer the heroin substitute. Scotland’s eight prisons hold 8,064 inmates and of those about 1,600 — one in five — are on methadone prescriptions.

 

One in four of the 1,689 prisoners in Barlinnie, Scotland’s biggest prison, is on the drug. Ewart says it can hold an additional 400 inmates. “The major constraint in considering the capacity of the healthcare staff to deliver methadone in the morning to the inmates. That creates a bottleneck in the life of the jail.â€

 

If they don't want smack heads going in and out of jail, then why do they insist on maintaining their addiction while they are on the inside.

It's on a par with locking up an alcoholic to sort them out, then as soon as they're in they point them to the free bar.

I know I've said it before but if they have to rattle it out of their system every time they get the jail, the desire for many to return will soon vanish, without the need for special torture cells which would likely only churn out even more damaged and broken personalities, which despite the desire of some here to see these inmates suffer; will not make them better people once they are let out, just twice as dangerous.

[Mattie]

I don't even know where the keys for our house are!! Let alone lock the doors when out!!

Although we manually lock it from the inside at night -just incase we are murdered in our beds!!

Maybe this is stupid!!

But regardless any junkies out there that want to steal my home contents!!

Feel free..

My Doberman, Rottweiler and German Shepherd will rip your heart out first!!

[NewMagnie]

I never lock my Door's even when i leave the house for a while. There has been several occasions i have left the house and the keys in the door.

 

In the interests of pettyfogging pedantry, if you never lock your door, what are your keys doing in the lock?

[Ghostrider]

^^^Ghostrider, my dear chap, this view you have of addictions doesn't include any help for the likes of me.

 

For so many years, which are totally uncountable now, I have had a serious desire to stop speaking sharn, but there has been little or no help available for this addiction. Even moving to a different country has failed to find a cure.

I really do want to give up this horrible habit of speaking sharn, writing sharn, etc.. Although I have to admit that my worst crime, linked to this habit, is my persistent annoyance of the mods.

But, where is the help?????

Certainly not from the pages of Shetlink, where speaking sharn seems to be the norm.

 

Onywye,,

Having added a suitable shovel of sharn to the topic.

 

A'm Geeng.

 

 

I would think the addiction to speaking sharn is so endemic within the human race, that any hope of identifying effective help let alone a cure has long since been abandoned. Just about everybody succumbs to that addiction from time to time, myself not least. In fact I would estimate that on any given day well in excess of 90% of everything I write or speak is absolute pure sharn (some would no doubt say its much nearer 100% of everything I write or speak every day, but hey, what do they know).

 

Besides, what would become of the world if an effective cure for speaking sharn was found. Being as politicians are by far the worst addicted to speaking sharn, it would only be fair they were treated first....and they'd all start being honest and telling the truth.

 

Ahhh, yes, the Mods. Well, they have a certain amount of sympathy from me, and I try not to rile them too often, but I probably fail at that most days too. But.....they did take on the impossible job though of trying to please all of the people all of the time....

 

....an wi dat sam Im geen tuh, afore Im forcefully Moderated.

[Fifi]

I do hope some enterprising thieves from outwith Shetland haven't stumbled upon this thread and are thinking a weekend break in Shetland might be a good idea..

[trout]

re: rehabilitation in prison. I absolutely agree with KOY in so far as when entering prison, should one be addicted to a substance - cold turkey'in out of their system would be a damn good punishment in itself and a forward step to rehabilitation.

 

Unfortunately, it's understandable why this method in the current political climate cannot work. Not least the lack of money available to the prison system, the inability to enact such "torturous" methods in this day and age - what with prisoners human rights -, and the issue that it's probably easier to look after a load of smacked up prisoners as it is to have them roaming around fully compus mentus!

[tlady]

I do hope some enterprising thieves from outwith Shetland haven't stumbled upon this thread and are thinking a weekend break in Shetland might be a good idea..

 

Then we will also add (before they book their tickets) that photo id will be required to gain access to our Island.

 

And our Police force will come down on lightfingered scumbags with full force.

[paulb]

torture and pre emptive arrests. Intresting! Or the easier option lock your doors.

[Spinner72]

And our Police force will come down on lightfingered scumbags with full force.

 

... unless their van is registered in Forvik...

[Para Handy]

Sorry tlady but someone let the genie out of the bottle I just don’t get how you are going to get the genie back in. drink drugs and theft are here to stay. If someone has entered you house and nicked your TV and the door was open you would have nobody to blame but your self for not locking your door. A thief is just a thief. I can’t see why anyone would want the make the crime any easier for them

 

 

But ParaHandy this is exactly what I'm saying .. why is it my fault?

 

 

Yesterday morning on BBC they showed 2 police persons with a loudhailer going round the houses reminding folk to lock their doors and windows... surely they'd be better employed catching the scumbags that's doing the break ins.

 

 

It would be partly your fault because you left your door unlocked. And just because you would like Shetland to still be like the fairy tale of yester year, when everyone new everyone in there community. And there were no door locks? probably because most could no afford to buy door locks, and had nothing worth stealing in the first place. But it is not like that anymore, never mind that 100 years ago, most were just hoping to still be alive and find food to put on the table for the kids. And that the man of the house would find some paid work the following day. But now Shetland is prosperous and some have more than others, And some scumbags see something and have to have it right away, instead of saving up the money they just nick it from those who already saved up and now have the said item. Crime is here in Shetland, and it is here to stay. Unless you are prepared to pay more taxes they can post a police man/woman, at every door of every home and business, in the islands. And there is no chance of that. Then if your house contents get nicked because you wont key your door, you made it easier for the crime to be done. And were catching up with the UK mainland very quickly when it comes to crime, how long until kids start carrying knives and go around stabbing one an other. When I left the AHS back in 1979 I had not hear of anyone being sent to prison for murder in the Shetland Islands. I can’t say that now. Interfering with little kids, attempted rape and the IRA has paid a call to these Islands since then, So wake up and start taking simple precautions, how long can it take just to close the door, after all most these days have locks that lock them selves when you pull the door shut.

 

 

 

 

Yesterday morning on BBC they showed 2 police persons with a loudhailer going round the houses reminding folk to lock their doors and windows... surely they'd be better employed catching the scumbags that's doing the break ins.

 

If people listened to what the police were saying they would not have to use up the time that they could use to catch those who have been nicking your stuff in the first place