Spooky noises and things that go bump in the night

[Duncan Frissell]

At 04:11 PM 1/7/02 -0800, Tim May wrote:
>>On Sunday, January 6, 2002, at 06:37 PM, Bill Stewart wrote:
>>
>>>Nor do I.  If the neighbor's kid wants to steal my
>>>overweight television or 233-MHz PC, it's not worth killing him for,
>
>Bill is of course welcome to invite the neighbor's kids to steal his stuff.
>
>My mileage varies.
>
>I think it is a moral necessity to kill anyone trying to steal anything 
>(beyond the utterly trivial or confusable, e.g., one should not kill 
>someone picking up a toy left out in the yard...might be a mistake, he 
>might be trying to return it, etc.).

In fact burglary is generally treated as a more serious crime than mere 
theft (the taking and asportation of the personal property of another) 
because it involves invasion of the home (at Common Law).  Though 
legislatures have expanded burglary to include businesses and even cars at 
Common Law it was "the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of 
another with intent to commit a felony therein."  It is serious because one 
may be vulnerable (asleep) at home and anyone criminal enough to break into 
your home is probably capable of doing very bad things.  It's quite a major 
breach of the duty of peace that we owe others (who haven't done anything 
to us).

DCF