Farmer arrested after allegedly knocking over 2 children with his car and assaulting a third

[RedViking]

The father of the 10-year-old girl said they were under the impression the field had been harvested, meaning it was permissible to take what was left.

Is this normal practice?

 

[ToxicBunny]

Is this normal practice?

Given that this farmer claims to have lost nearly 40tons of product this year to theft, I very much doubt it... its just one of the many holes in the one side of the story.

That and I doubt that farmers would leave product just randomly in the field, and that field also doesn't look properly harvested to me (based on the photo in the article)

 

[Conack]

Is this normal practice?

According to the bible, yes.
I think they got the bible's fables confused with real life.

 

[ForceFate]

CosmicForceFate with more anecdotes...

Why shouldn't I mention it? I want to understand because I had a different experience, but I wasn't doing extremely high speeds.

 

[Unhappy438]

Quite likely, but it just strikes me as an odd setup to happen really.

Someone with anger management issues would have surfaced before trying to kill some kids with his car.

I am not trying to excuse his behaviour at all, I just find the situation very odd that's all.

Without making an excuse for the farmers behavior because its obviously wrong, we are going to see more and more of these types of incidences due to the current crime levels and peoples general fed up attitude to crime itself.

 

[Gyre]

The problem in SA if you white you by default a racist and guilty as charged.

Its now your problem to prove your innocents.

The second issue is petty crime, what does one do about recurring crime that is starting to make you broke, the police don't want to do anything about. If a farmers crops gets stolen, police says not their problem, what do you do?

Finish this sentence and try make it sound as sane as possible

" I drove over a 10 year old thief because..."

 

[HunterNW]

Finish this sentence and try make it sound as sane as possible

" I drove over a 10 year old thief because..."

My bakkie skidded on the wet mud.

 

[konfab]

Jail time for you.

Are you sure of that?
Less than lethal force in defence of property isn't something that I can see being a legal issue.

 

[ForceFate]

Is this normal practice?

No idea about how commercial farmers operate but it's normal practice with subsistence farmers.

But even then, there are rules

 

[konfab]

They then used the tractor to pull the bakkie off the 10-year-old girl, whose leg was broken by the impact. Ambulances transported her and her friends to hospital.

Less than a kilometre away from the scene is the small informal village where the children and their families live.

The father of the 10-year-old girl said they were under the impression the field had been harvested, meaning it was permissible to take what was left.

10/10 parenting there. Saying it is perfectly ok to allow your child to wander onto someone else's property to take their crops with no adult supervision.

Father has admitted that his children were stealing produce with his permission.

The father of the 10-year-old girl said they were under the impression the field had been harvested, meaning it was permissible to take what was left.

“They went there on Friday at about 2pm to pick mielies still left in the field after the harvesting was done,” the father, 38, told TimesLIVE.

He said they don’t know how Grobler knew the children were there.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Without making an excuse for the farmers behavior because its obviously wrong, we are going to see more and more of these types of incidences due to the current crime levels and peoples general fed up attitude to crime itself.

So from the farmers side of the story, there may be no behaviour to excuse... all really depends on what happened in reality.

But I do generally agree with you, given how incompetent and "monitoring the situation" our police force are, citizens will take the law into their own hands more and more.

 

[Unhappy438]

So from the farmers side of the story, there may be no behaviour to excuse... all really depends on what happened in reality.

But I do generally agree with you, given how incompetent and "monitoring the situation" our police force are, citizens will take the law into their own hands more and more.

Perhaps so, he may have chased after them when he discovered they were stealing his corn and then accidently hit them with his bakkie. In which case there is nothing to excuse.

Certainly the children and their parents aren't faultless.

 

[konfab]

Perhaps so, he may have chased after them when he discovered they were stealing his corn and then accidently hit them with his bakkie. In which case there is nothing to excuse.

Certainly the children and their parents aren't faultless.

Aside from the fact of the parents knowing their children are going to commit a crime, there is a major case of neglect.

If those kids were hiding in that field during harvest time, they pretty much would be fertiliser by now.

 

[HunterNW]

"Parent" my as$. Sending your kids to do your stealing. He feels a fck- But now there's money to be made, so his poor child.

 

[Aghori]

Pity. He should have just dug a large pit and dumped all 3 bodies in there alive or dead, instead of being a stupid and calling the police.

I guess we get more Right-Wing as we get older.

 

[ForceFate]

Pity. He should have just dug a large pit and dumped all 3 bodies in there alive or dead, instead of being a stupid and calling the police.

I guess we get more Right-Wing as we get older.

That's not right wing. That's cold blooded murderous trait.

 

[konfab]

Pity. He should have just dug a large pit and dumped all 3 bodies in there alive or dead, instead of being a stupid and calling the police.

I guess we get more Right-Wing as we get older.

Nice "right wing" ideology you have there. Nothing like personal responsibility or anything like that.

The guy called the police when it happened because it is the correct thing to do, even if he knows he will be treated unfairly by the police.

 

[ForceFate]

Nice "right wing" ideology you have there. Nothing like personal responsibility or anything like that.

The guy called the police when it happened because it is the correct thing to do, even if he knows he will be treated unfairly by the police.

But was he treated unfairly?

 

[konfab]

But was he treated unfairly?

Spending a week in a nasty police cell for something you didn't do is an injustice, but unfortunately it is a reality of the clown world that is the South African justice system.

If you hit 3 kids who run in front of your car through no fault of your own and you spend a week in a police cell to await your bail hearing, you probably wouldn't be too happy about it either.

My comment speaks more to the general capacity of the SA justice system and quality of police than this particular individual.

 

[ToxicBunny]

But was he treated unfairly?

If he is still in custody, then yes he has been treated unfairly.

Especially if he called the cops to come to the scene really. He is clearly attempting to do the right thing, and the cops also know where he lives so it should be easy to keep track of him until after the investigation determines a likely course of events.