Staplegun.

OK, so I was going to show lots of pictures of peas and things today, but now I'm not.

One of the good things about having to journey to Orange is that I get a chance to catch up with a friend of mine who lives and works there (she's a colleague who works in that office). She also just happens to be Greek.

Over the weekend her family were going to a pre-wedding meal of some sort, and were all dressed up. En route, her brother decides to stop off for some cigarettes, and they stop at a little Tesco (spit) Metro. Anna (my friend) and her mum wait in the car while her brother (Harris) nips inside for the fags, merrily chatting away. After a short while, they realise he has been rather a while, and get out to go look for him.

When they enter the shop, it's an absolute mess. Half the shelves have been knocked over, her brother is bleeding from a cut lip, and is covered head to toe in Lenor.

It turns out that some smackhead had come in, spotted Harris, and yelled something along the lines of: "I hate you Iraqis and Kosovans. I'm gonna kill you."

Needless to say, the poor bugger landed one punch and spent the next five minutes severely regretting his decision to go shopping. The security footage (sadly soundless) is testament to that, and apparently the police were heartily amused. Smackhead was well known around those parts, and even tagged. Pity the poor sod got away.

Yes, my friend's family are going to press charges, but the police decided not to arrest Smackhead that evening as they knew he wasn't going anywhere, and would take far too much manpower to do so while he was still high - best let him whimper off home and come down before arresting him the following morning.

What gets me, however, is that this guy is known locally as an absolute and utter (and any minors should probably stop reading now as the rest of this blog involves lots of swearing) cunt. The police know it, the locals know it.

Why the fuck was he not locked away? I am all for tagging - I think it is a fine way to reintegrate people back into society. It offers them a chance to prove themselves, and Big Brother an opportunity to keep an eye on them - but only for those who aren't liable to menace society, and not as the only course of punishment.

And most definately not for wankers who wouldn't recognise an Iraqi (or in this case, a Grecian) if they beat seven shades of shit out of them.

What is the best punishment for them? I don't know - I try to be a liberal, and I guess academically I am, but when it happens to people you know it's different. Right now, I think that Smackhead should be castrated just for what he said, never mind what he did, but that's just my emotions doing my talking for me.

I think if I chose my response carefully, and logically, I'd probably just prefer he had his eyelids staplegunned shut.