Help!

Villagers are ordered by the police not to use wire to protect their sheds against burglars!

Outrage!

What actually happened here?

If you read the article it seems that some community police officers warned local residents that "there have been cases where criminals have sued for injuries they have suffered while committing a criminal act". The wire used to protect sheds might (said the police) be dangerous to thieves.

Hence this:

Residents in Surrey and Kent villages have been ordered by police to remove wire mesh from their windows as burglars could be injured.

Home owners in the villages of Tandridge and Tatsfield in Surrey and in Westerham, Brasted and Sundridge in Kent have said they are furious that they are being branded ‘criminals’ for protecting their property.

First, shame on the police for giving out idiotic warnings.

So what if some criminals have sued for damages for injuries sustained while being criminal? How many won their cases and in which circumstances? They must have had to prove a pretty hefty level of unreasonableness/negligence – something like using a powerful sharp man-trap or a shotgun to protect an allotment, where the level of ‘force’ deployed by the property owner was capable of being seen as wholly disproportionate.

This is yet another case of the evil Precautionary Principle run amok in the public sector. Something bad might happen even though it’s unbelievably unlikely, so let’s panic! If David Cameron wants us to have any Society, Big or Small, he needs to do something about this madness.

Second, shame on the home owners for being (according to this article) so stupid as to be unaware of the distinction between (a) civil and (b) criminal proceedings. If a criminal sues you, you are not a "criminal who only wanted to defend your property". Even if the criminal wins. Duh.

So to sum up.

This article makes no sense whatsoever, even on its face.

The villagers were not ‘ordered’ by the police to remove the wire protection.

They were not ‘ordered’ by the police not to protect their property.

They were given dim-witted advice which they appear dim-wittedly to have followed, allowing a dim-witted journalist (aka Daily Mail Reporter) a noisy facile non-story.

We are a nation of dim-wits.