Taking knife to a Tagger-Is it justified ?

Recently in Auckland there was an incident of a 15 year old tagger having been killed with a knife by the home owner after a brief chase. The link is
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10556542

The home owner has since been convicted of manslaughter and been sentenced to 4 years prison term, which he may appeal.

This case has raised a big debate in New Zealand about the justice meted out, whether the home owner was justified in killing the boy and whether the boy deserved what he got.
The debate can be followed on this link
http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/2/13/bruce-emerys-sentence-fair/?c_id=1501154&objectid=10556569

I am very disturbed about the support the home owner is getting from many in New Zealand. He is almost made out to be a hero who in defending his property from petty vandalism, is entitled to give out the capital punishment which the justice system itself has fore-sworn.

The majority opinion expressed seems to be that the kid deserved what he got. I thought death penalty had been abolished in New Zealand. But it appears to be okay when it is administered outside the courts. What next, private vigilantism?

Not an healthy situation to be in. There have also been questions about the kind of parenting the boy has received, coming from a poor family with a single mother who had gone overseas for a job. Parenting however cuts both ways. Remember the home oewner is a parent too. Should he not have been more cool-headed and avoided taking a knife with him?

It is facile to say that he decided to chase the boy, but took with him a knife to protect himself, in case he was attacked. Looks a bit deliberate to me. As deliberate as the kid when he took a spray can with him. One does not excuse the other.

The kid consciously took a spray can to damage some one’s property. The property owner consciously took a knife to damage some one’s body if not life. I wonder which was worse, inspite of who provoked whom and what provoked what. Where is the Christian spirit of showing the other cheek ? Can society be peaceful with such indiscipline and anger ?

Break down of family and society, lack of efective policing because of small number of police doing inessential stuff, police not being on the beat/street to send out a message, police not responding within reasonable time to reports of crime, lenient sentencing, availability of early parole, etc are probably some of the many causes of such incidents.

Very scary to think where we all are going.