AIN’T MISBEHAVIN", SORT OF

Campaigning pensioners, Joan Martin and the late, much missed, Pam Barden.

The Daily Mail on Saturday 3rd April 2010 had an interesting article within it about the increasing number of pensioners falling foul of the law. Not that pensioners have taken up bank robbing, shoplifting or mugging, there are other reasons for this phenomenon.

Years ago, when someone retired they were expected to vanish into a world of aged poverty where the highlights of the day were a short chat with a bored shop assistant or making half a pint of beer last for an hour or two in the local pub, but not these days as modern pensioners get up to all sorts of things, not least joining protest movements and campaigning groups.

Today's pensioners are those baby boomers of the late forties and early fifties who have managed to take early retirement, they are the children of the swinging sixties who dropped out and did their own thing - the rules were not made for them and the pop groups they followed such as the rolling stones, are still swinging and making today's bland teenage offerings look rather tame and boring.

Although this group of rebels dropped out during the sixties, by the time the seventies came around they were making their mark in the world in business or building their careers, they still had a rebellious streak about them which gave them an edge in the business world. However, being the children of the forties and early fifties they had a certain moral code of the pre-war era drummed into them by their parents, teachers and authorities which, despite their youthful rebellious period, they have taken into their later years with them - hence the problems they face with our politically correct and liberal legal system and politicised police.

When these people see a group of yobs terrorising their neighbourhood, or when they see things they know to be wrong, they do not hesitate to tackle the problem head on - which puts them in trouble with the law. In this day and age we are not supposed to face up to yobish behaviour in case we offend the sensitivities or human rights of the yobs - if we do it is us that end up in the clink with our fingerprints and DNO being put onto the national data-base for all time - the yobs go free to continue blighting our lives.

Pensioners in recent years have landed themselves in trouble for standing up against the might of the authorities whose job it is, supposedly, to serve the public. We have seen little old ladies who protest against being ripped-off by council taxes being sent to prison or pensioners who still think they live in a free country being prosecuted for hate crimes for simply saying what they think. We now live in a scary place where we have to live in fear of what we say and do, even if it was something that was done by all a few years ago.

Pensioners enjoying life today, according to the Daily Mail, have been criminalised and fined for rollerblading through Southport, stopping yobs throwing bricks at ducks on a canal and one was CS gassed by the police when in a dispute with his neighbours over rubbish.

One Walsall pensioner, Cyril Randal who lives close to me, was accused of throwing chewing gum out of his car window and sent a fine through the post for an offence he did not only not commit, but was actually impossible for him to commit as his car window was jammed shut at the time due to a problem with it. The local authorities were so contemptible of the law and their duty to those who they are supposed to serve changed the facts when Cyril called them to point out a number of errors in their accusation against him. They had written down on the summons the wrong locations and colour of the car he was driving. When he pointed this out they had the audacity to thank him for correcting this as they would not have been able to take the case any further with the wrong facts. I am pleased to say that Cyril is made of stronger stuff and stood his ground against these town hall tyrants by taking it to court rather than meekly paying a fine. In the end won his case when the authorities gave up and made the feeble excuse that they had taken Cyril's health and age into account. I still see Cyril quite often and he is as fit as a fiddle and would give quite a few younger chaps a run for their money.

In this last week we have reached the hight of state funded persecution of its citizens when the news hit that a normally respectable older woman, who sold a goldfish to a minor, had been the victim in a sting operation worthy of a multi million pound drugs bust. She is now not only £1000 the poorer after paying her fine, but has a criminal record and has been tagged. Sadly the state is not concerned about the mayhem created by hooligans, they are more interested in arresting the oldigans who dare stand up to them who ain't misbehavin', well sort of.