Cheery old England...

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sgt127

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Good thing the people in London are unarmed. there just might be alot of dead badguys to deal with. Note that it was never mentioned what the weapon of choice may be for the English robber, I believe alot of them may be armed, but, it would be bad press to admit the ne'er do wells have guns and the citizens don't.

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/5949100?source=Evening Standard

164 muggings a day in London
By Hugh Dougherty, Home Affairs Correspondent, Evening Standard
28 July 2003
The extent of street crime in London is revealed in new figures showing there are 164 muggings in the capital every day.

A report by independent watchdogs shows that, although street crime has come down from its record high levels of early 2002, it is still higher than at any other time in recent history.

It will say that the massive effort to reduce muggings and robberies, involving hundreds of thousands of hours of police time, has produced only a 15 per cent reduction in London.



Scotland Yard figures show that Lambeth is the worst of the 32 boroughs for street crime and that, per head of population, Richmond-is the least dangerous.

The full report - published tomorrow by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, Probation and Prisons - is the first independent evaluation of the street crime initiative announced by Tony Blair and Home Secretary David Blunthem a valuable asset they can easily sell.

It is expected to show that the first six months of the police campaign against street crime - when officers got out of their cars and went on the beat in mugging hotspots - produced a steady fall to an average of 163 muggings a day. But there was a rise in the next six months, leading to the average for the year being 164.

The report will also warn that the clear-up rate for street crime is still too low. In London only 9.04 per cent of all street crimes were classified as "cleared-up" last year, far lower than the 14 per cent average for all crimes, but a rise from the 2001-2 figure of 8.7 per cent.

Fewer than one in 10 street robberies in London end with someone being charged or cautioned, the worst figure in the country. And, despite the rise in the clearup rate, the fall in numbers of street crimes meant fewer crimes were classifiedas cleared up and fewer muggers went to prison in 2002-3 than in 2001-2.

Scotland Yard figures show that, although street crime fell by 36 per cent in Lambeth from April last year to March 2003, residents stand a one in 51 chance of being mugged each year, compared with a one in 488 chance in Richmond.

Boroughs that were not part of the street crime initiative had much smaller falls in muggings - and in the case of Islington, Hammersmith and Fulham and Merton suffered increases.

Although the total fall in London was 15 per cent, Haringey, Ealing, Hillingdon, Havering, Wandsworth and Greenwich had falls in single figures, possibly because resources were concentrated on the worst affected areas, mainly Southwark, Lambeth, Westminster, Camden and Hackney, where falls ranged from 15 per cent to 36 per cent.
 
Come on now, everyone knows that the Britons are perfectly safe because they have no guns. This must be some mistake, there can't possibly be gun crime in the land of no guns....can there?
 
Ya know, while I agree that the foolish ban on private ownership of firearms has greatly contributed to Britian's crime problems, there are other factors at work there that we should be cognizant of. The cradle to grave welfare system, rampant influx of citizens from the old empire, high unemployment and a legal system that considers criminal activity some sort of faux pas and not as an affront to society deserving strict sanction.

This country could be in the same boat in the future. Just look at:

1. the recent squawking about giving tax refunds to people who didn't pay taxes (in my book, if the Govenrment sends you money that you never had before, that's welfare).

2. Continuing pushing for amnesty for illegal immigrants 9something we have done 2x before) and expanding use of the un-regulated ID card issued by the various Mexican Embassies and Consulate as a valid ID in the USA).

3. Rising unemployment rates.

4. Recent squealing by the ACLU and other liberal groups that there are too many people in prision and we should find other ways to deal with criminals. Which means don't jail 'em, pat 'em on the heads and make them promise to be good.

I will bet that as we get closed to the sunset of the AWB, you will see increased pressure to increase regulation and confiscation of privately owned firearms.

That's my 2 cents worth. Well, maybe more like 25 cents worth.
 
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