Living In A Gangster’s Paradise
So crime is down , is it?
No, it’s not:
Over the decade since that tough on crime supremo took over, police recorded crime is up 7% (1997-98 to 2007-08). And when you probe beneath the totals, crimes of violence turn out to be up much MUCH more…
What’s that? Ah yes, of course - we’re not allowed to make that comparison because during the last ten years, the Home Office changed its counting rules for recorded crime not once, but twice. Twice. Is it any wonder nobody trusts the stats? (Burning our money)
Measuring crime stats is imprecise anyway - and always underestimates the level of crime because it is simply recorded crime that makes these statistics.
There is always the “dark figure” of crime, the crimes that are not reported to the police for various reasons - such as fear of reprisals from the criminals and concern over whether the police could or would bother to do anything about it. And with the way that the police appear to do so little about it at the moment - appearing to be more concerned with thought crime - the dark figure is inevitably huge.
To add to this is the lack of respect that is now given to the police by many sections of society, as exampled by this story:
Two police officers were attacked by a mob in south London after they asked a 15-year-old girl to pick up her litter.
One officer was dragged to the ground and kicked while the other was bitten by a girl who jumped on his back. (BBC)
How can it be claimed that crime is truly down when police officers are being attacked in this way?
We truly are living in a gangster’s paradise.
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I would hazard a guess that the plod were being their usual unpleasant arrogant selves 30 people don’t attack for no good reason.
Yes it seems so - the police were manhandling a young girl for the serious crime of dropping litter
For goodness sake TD you’re better than this. Crime is down. Detected and recorded crime may be up in some categories but that is quite different. CCTV increased recorded/detected crime with all sorts of incidents including inconsequential violent scuffles being recorded and almost by definition becoming unsolved. And more feet on the street through increased police and PCSOs also increases detection and recording.
Perhaps we should reduce CCTV and police numbers?
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