What the blazes is going on in Britain?

Disabled widow, 71 charged with assault after she prodded teenager
By Jaya Narain

A disabled pensioner was hauled before the courts and charged with assault after she prodded a teenage 'hoodie' in the chest with her finger.
Renate Bowling, 71, confronted the 17-year-old youth in the street after stones were thrown at her home.
During the conversation the frail widow, who fled to Britain from Communist East Germany and walks with a steel frame, prodded the youth in the chest with her finger.

Renate Bowling, 71, who uses a walking frame, pleaded guilty to assault after prodding a teenager in the chest for throwing stones at her windows
Police officers were called to the quiet residential street and the teenager told them he had been assaulted.
Yesterday Mrs Bowling admitted a charge of assault when she appeared before magistrates in Blackpool.
Magistrates gave her a conditional discharge for six months and ordered her to pay £50 costs.
Afterwards the great-grandmother said anti-social youths were left to run riot while she was hauled into court.
She said: 'What justice is there? There are a group of youths who throw gravel at my window and use foul language against me.
'I saw one of them throw the stones against my window from my bedroom. I went out and found him hiding behind a wall.
I poked my finger out at him and told him what I thought of him. He called me "some ****ing German woman".
'Then the police arrested me - I thought "What a joke. What is going on?"
'That lad had held my wrists and bruised them and he had the gall to call it self-defence.
'The police put me in the back of their van like a sack of spuds and took me to the station where they questioned me. Then a few days later I was told I was being prosecuted. I could not believe it, neither could my family.
'I had to borrow £20 from a friend to pay the court costs as I only had £30 on me. It has all been a nightmare.'
The court was told Mrs Bowling survived the Second World War in Berlin but was later trapped in East Germany.
She managed to escape and then fell in love with a British Army sergeant from the Royal Engineers.
The couple made a home in Britain and Mrs Bowling worked as a furrier. She has three sons, ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
But recently youths have made her life a misery.
On May 12 this year stones were thrown at her home in Thornton Cleveleys and comments were made by youths towards her in the street.
Julie Reilly, prosecuting, told magistrates: 'This defendant says he was playing football in the street when there was an incident between himself and the defendant.
'Had the defendant accepted her criminality in prodding the aggrieved in the chest there and then, this could well have been dealt with in a different way.'
Nigel Beeson, defending, said Mrs Bowling had given the defendant 'a piece of her mind and addressed him frankly'.
He added: This is a very sad case for those concerned - a 71-year-old granny charged with assaulting a 17-year-old boy. It was a prod, there were no injuries.'
Originally Mrs Bowling had intended to deny the offence but after a long deliberation between the Crown Prosecution Service and her defence, Mrs Bowling admitted the charge of assault.