cjh wrote:...within a certain demographic you're running a much greater risk of being stabbed than you were ten years ago but the overall number of violent crimes reported is down.

I think this hits at the heart of the issue. Youth crime seems to have taken on a new M.O. in Britain over the past few years. Gang culture, knives, guns etc. The murder of that little kid Rhys Jones in Liverpool.

cjh wrote:An obvious thing to say but media coverage definitely has an affect on the perception of crime - I grew up in the 80s with cases like Ripper investigation and there was a real sense that sexual assault by a stranger was a very real risk when it was/is (thankfully) still quite rare.

I saw a bit of a documentary the other night about the Ripper case and they had old news interviews with women from the Yorkshire area. These women were so afraid that they were doubting their husbands/brothers etc. Intense media coverage can have some incredible effects.

Heeby Jeeby wrote:

cjh wrote:An obvious thing to say but media coverage definitely has an affect on the perception of crime - I grew up in the 80s with cases like Ripper investigation and there was a real sense that sexual assault by a stranger was a very real risk when it was/is (thankfully) still quite rare.

I saw a bit of a documentary the other night about the Ripper case and they had old news interviews with women from the Yorkshire area. These women were so afraid that they were doubting their husbands/brothers etc. Intense media coverage can have some incredible effects.

aside/

My dad was experimenting with a beard and working late at the office at the time, and after a description was given out our neighbours phoned the police. My mum answered the door to the police on an evening when my dad was still at work; when he got home he was questioned for about two minutes before they realised he wasn't the guy.

There is an overlay available on Google Maps of sites related to the Yorkshire Ripper - I walk almost every day past locations where bodies were found.

/aside

I was in one of those garage/Marks and Spencers affairs last week, getting a drink for my daughter, when this guy walked in and calmly threatened to stab the cashier because he claimed she hadn't turned the pump on. He was saying all this in front of my daughter, who is only six.

Tommy Alpha wrote:True. What hapened to your uncle (from what little I know of the situation) was disgusting. Hows he doing now?

My uncle is doing really well, thanks for asking. Just got the final all-clear from the neurologist and is moving in to his new apartment today. I was over with him two weekends ago again and he looks/sounds so much better.

Tommy Alpha wrote:In one sense, no I don't feel any more or less safe than I did five or six years ago. There were awful things going on then, just as now. Most of the reporting of violent crime seems to be either the horrific (New Cross) or tied to age/race/gangs which don't apply to me. A few weeks ago I was mugged by a crack head rudy on my bus home. This hasn't made me any more or less scared of black youths- the simple fact, aside from issues of racism, is that I can't afford to be or I would never leave my house. In actual fact I'm often more wary of white youths.

Seems like a fair attitude to have. I got robbed recently enough but it hasn't really changed the way I act or any decisions I make or make me any more nervous around Eastern Europeans. I think it's healthy to be aware of your surroundings/possible dangers but you can't let it fuck with you to any extent. Too many people become victims of crime and then either lock themselves away or become reactionary, right-wing, lock-em-up-and-kill-em-all types.

Tommy Alpha wrote:It’s also interesting to hear about your dad- I have no knowledge of knife crime in Glasgow other than my friends boyfriend almost being killed and the apocryphal stories of ‘knife gangs’ I heard as a result.

This was forty years ago and not a typical 'crime' either. It was 1969 and the Troubles had just flared big time. My Da was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, with a Southern Irish accent. A Protestant gang thought they'd teach him and his friend a lesson and pulled a knife and that was that. Didn't change my Da's opinion or attitude one iota.

I even feel weird writing 'Protestant gang' but y'know the type - Rangers fans in other words.

Rather than national service, I suggest they bring back football hooliganism - at least in the 80s these oiks were almost exclusively stabbing each other.

daniel robert chapman wrote:My dad was experimenting with a beard and working late at the office at the time, and after a description was given out our neighbours phoned the police. My mum answered the door to the police on an evening when my dad was still at work; when he got home he was questioned for about two minutes before they realised he wasn't the guy.

Thats fucking mental. Did you ever find out which one it was? It's understandable considering the situation at the time, people shopping their families etc. but I presume it made for awkward neighbourly conversations for a while.

I'm sorry to hear of these incidents where it has affected people and their families. I feel safer on the streets than I used to now I am a bit older, and If anything I'm more streetwise, there are areas where I just won't go to. I was mugged twice as a teenager, the first time in London, I just gave the crackhead my money. The second time was in Lincoln, I fought back and ended up in hospital, fucker didnt get my money though.

All this CCTV we have now and it's not doing much good.

cjh wrote:That said, the Co-op in the sleepy village in Lincolnshire where my folks live was subject to an armed robbery a couple of months ago, absolutely unprecedented. UK used to mean United Kingdom, but ask anyone today and they'll tell you it stands for Unbelievable Krimewave.

Lincolnshire is supposedly a safer place to be right now, what with the surplus in police funding. The city is anyway, I can't speak so much for the rural areas. I swear if you spat in the street in Lincoln city centre, you'd be descended upon by eight or so coppers, they are everywhere. I live on the edge of a rough area, and the police have done a lot to clean up the neighbourhood in recent months.

Heeby Jeeby wrote:

daniel robert chapman wrote:My dad was experimenting with a beard and working late at the office at the time, and after a description was given out our neighbours phoned the police. My mum answered the door to the police on an evening when my dad was still at work; when he got home he was questioned for about two minutes before they realised he wasn't the guy.

Thats fucking mental. Did you ever find out which one it was? It's understandable considering the situation at the time, people shopping their families etc. but I presume it made for awkward neighbourly conversations for a while.

It was unrelated, but my parents did move house within a year or two... from what I've been told, I don't think these particular neighbours were great friends of the Chapmans anyway.

It is understandable though, the paranoia at that time must have been intense.

Lincoln represent! or something.

I have often have to be in the city centre in the middle of the night at the weekend (job-wise), and certainly the level of violent idiocy seems low compared to elsewhere, although it might simply be a case of being small and fairly provincial.

Adam I wrote:Lincoln represent! or something.

I have often have to be in the city centre in the middle of the night at the weekend (job-wise), and certainly the level of violent idiocy seems low compared to elsewhere, although it might simply be a case of being small and fairly provincial.

i think i saw more acts of random, drink-fuelled violence when out in Lincoln on a Saturday night than i ever have in Nottingham.