Let me paint a picture for you with words. A scenario which you can contemplate and then decide how you would react in such circumstances.
Imagine you a woman in early middle age. You live on your own in a nice little one bedroom flat and spend your time watching TV, imbibing the odd bottle of booze and of course smoking the occasional substance which the government feels we are not qualified to decide whether or not we want to use it.
In other words there is nothing spectacular about her life. She doesn't work because she suffers from a catalogue of mental health issues: PTSD, schizophrenia, OCD, and clinical depression. These in themselves are somewhat debilitating. But the real issue is caused by the medication that she has to take. This consists of a plethora of psycho-tropic drugs which combined turn her into a semi-comatose barely functioning person. This is sad because her normal personality is that of a bubbly outgoing person, full of mischief and laughter.
Anyway, as a consequence of her copious drug intake she tends to live her life adhering to a routing which hasn't changed in many years.
For the past three years she has lived in the little flat described above. In that time things have been quiet. There have been no issues with neighbours or locals. She keeps herself to herself and bothers nobody.
This was until approximately three months ago. Then, one of the downstairs neighbours moved out. A new tennent moved in. He seemed okay, was aged about forty or so and seemed quiet and desiring only of being left alone. But, he then moved out and sub-let the flat to a young man. This character is, for want of a better word, a 'fuckwit !' He has the IQ of a hen. For some bizarre reason seems to think he is some kind of a tough guy (He weighs about 140 lbs dripping wet and is all of five foot five !) despite this though he seems determined to cause as much trouble as possible. First of all he started playing music at 6am ! Next he started screaming abuse up the stairs to the lady I described earlier.
She thought this was bad but it was only the start of her problems. In the space of three weeks she was burgled three times ! The last time they stole her brand new flat screen television. This was disheartening for her to say the least. Next thing somebody began a campaign of systematically smashing her windows. Over the course of about a week she would have windows smashed every night.
This went on until one night while she was in her living room watching television when she heard the smashing of glass. She went into her bedroom - which is at the front of her flat, looked out the window and there, bold as brass stood a young thug casually picking up rocks and throwing them at her windows. She screamed at him to stop. But all he did was reply, "Fuck off or I'll pour petrol through your letter box." This was the final straw for her. She dashed out of the flat after him. shouting, "Come here you little shit I'll kill you." Unfortunately somebody overheard her shout this and called the police. Two officers turned up and approached her saying, "Drop the knife love or we will taser you" This came as a surprise to her. She looked down and only then did she realize that she was carrying an eight inch bread knife ! She immediately dropped it, but nevertheless the police arrested her, even though the bloke who had been smashing her windows was only a few feet away laughing at her.
She was taken to a police station and charged with carrying an offensive weapon and threats to kill ! She is in court this Wednesday. The police are aware of the intimidation she has endured. They are also aware of the burglaries and the window smashing. Despite all of this they are determined to prosecute her. She has never been in a police station in her life prior to this occurrence. And with her mental health issues it is clearly ridiculous of the police to continue with a prosecution. But that is the nature of Britain in the twenty first century. What will happen to her I honestly don't know. By all that is right and just she should merely be offered more help and support. But, in the current state of the country I just don't know. With the present government anything could happen. I'm disgusted by this occurrence and can only accompany her to court and offer any support I can. She is absolutely terrified. This is what makes me most angry. A vulnerable person who needs help is being put through a process which can only aggravate the symptoms of her schizophrenia with the stress and anxiety. Justice huh ? I shit it !
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