Streets flowing with blood in London

[afrophysics]

It's 2am in Britian, which means it's late evening in the US, primetime for me to get responses from Americans to this topic.

My dad recently said to me that if you were to believe the Daily Express (a mid market British newspaper) then the streets of London are flowing with blood, such is the amount of violence (especially youth violence) in Britain. One of the more well-known deaths was of the Harry Potter Rob Knox, who was stabbed 500m down my road. My worried family in South Africa (or those who had access to a computer) immediately deluged our inbox, and they seem to be under the impression that the UK is the grips of an epidemic of violent crime. My dad dismisses it as "bunkum", and says that although there may have been a rise in violent youth crime in Britain, they should worry more about the recent spate in xenophobic attacks (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7407914.stm) in SA. It seems they here more news about the violence here than in their own country. Have you heard anything in America about the rise in youth crime in Britain? Is it an important story at all (although the media frenzy here has been largely replaced by news of the olympics in the same way it replaced the coverage of the Madeleine Mccann) and if so what do you think about it. If anybody in Britain is still up, do you feel any less safe than two or three years ago? Because I sure as hell don't.

 

[zirnitra]

well as far as I can remember London has always been a dangerous place. I doubt the yanks are to phased by this, I read somewhere youth has a better live expectancy in death row than in the ghettos of America. and as the comedian Rich Hall said about being mugged in the UK "or what you'll stab me? that would be nostalgic". Ironically I think a large amount of this violence stems from American cultural influences.

 

[the monopoly guy]

There's panic in the streets of London!

I'm sorry.
No, I haven't

 

[Evilbunny]

No, our media is nothing short of awful. They only report stuff that happens in the US. The only time where they ever bother to look beyond our own borders is if something absolutely horrible happens (death count over 500) or it somehow involves Americans. I have to rely on the internet for most of my news, but I haven't come across anything about this.

 

[BardSeed]

The American news channels are a joke, from what I've seen. Fox is so awful that, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear it was supposed to be political satire.

 

[Danny Ocean]

If anybody in Britain is still up, do you feel any less safe than two or three years ago? Because I sure as hell don't.

I feel the same, actually I feel more safe now that I'm bigger.

Ooh wow, I just pulled an all-nighter on the Escapist.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

I think the the news is nothing but propaganda designed to instill a pointless and unreasonable fear in the innocent American voters...

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

I had heard about a supposed rise in crime, but not from an American news show. Words cannot describe how bad they are, especially FOX. I am an American myself.

Just imagine how precious a thing it is when I get to watch BBC World News...

 

[BardSeed]

I felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture on the Georgian conflict so I started watching Russia Todays along with BBC. I think that the west are showing the news from a single angle, especially the Americans. I feel that the Georgians are sneaky and that the Russians are being made to look worse than they actually are. That got a bit off-topic.
I think that the British tabloids are exaggerating the amount of knife-crime slightly but it would be foolish to deny that crime is rife here in Britain. I've been mugged and attacked a few times in busy, well-lit areas. I haven't had a knife drawn on me yet but I don't doubt that I will somewhere down the line.

 

[howard_hughes]

I've heard nothing about crime in London, although the way the American media portrays things over here our troops are safer in Iraq

 

[Eyclonus]

Crime in Australia is funny. Actually the US government described it in a manual given to Bush's press entourage at his first and only visit: "Crime: Think Big, Wide, OPEN Spaces. Your more likely to be struck by lightning then Mugged in Australia"*

Which is kinda close, Crime in the south east coast is mostly druggies trying and failing to get cash, the dealers feuding over turf, Mafia. Universally we've got Serial Killers stalking
backpackers and tourists. Dunno why, just seems more likely for the victims to be from overseas.


*Although this document proceed to name our Prime Minister as "John Major" and not "John Howard"

 

[JayCro]

I'm Australian and hear little to nothing about British crime and a bit more about American crimes.

I think all media makes out that the crime rate is much worse then it is.

Although two weeks ago there was a murder/suicide and a machete attack in the one day in my area. Not sure if anyone heard about that.

 

[Eiseman]

Typical news banter: At eleven, THINGS CAN KILL YOU! Tune in to find out how.

Anyway, my belief is that seeing something on the news isn't the time to start making a fuss over anything, be it crime, war, disease, etc. It's when politicians start talking about it that you can start shitting bricks.

 

[shadow1138]

No, our media is nothing short of awful. They only report stuff that happens in the US. The only time where they ever bother to look beyond our own borders is if something absolutely horrible happens (death count over 500) or it somehow involves Americans. I have to rely on the internet for most of my news, but I haven't come across anything about this.

Same thing occured to me when I was living in Chicago. Still I didn't find it that bad. It's not really like we should care that much and there's always the internet.
EDIT

I felt like I wasn't getting the whole picture on the Georgian conflict so I started watching Russia Todays along with BBC. I think that the west are showing the news from a single angle, especially the Americans. I feel that the Georgians are sneaky and that the Russians are being made to look worse than they actually are.

I think that the Russians are making their own variant of Kosovo to show the Americans they can do it just as good as them. Sorry for getting off topic just wanted to clear that up

 

[Lord Krunk]

To quote Master Li from "Jade Empire": "This place isn't safe; but then again, no place really is."

I'm Aussie, by the way. You should be worried about us; being from Prison Island and all...

 

[puffbro1]

Crime in Australia is funny. Actually the US government described it in a manual given to Bush's press entourage at his first and only visit: "Crime: Think Big, Wide, OPEN Spaces. Your more likely to be struck by lightning then Mugged in Australia"*

Which is kinda close, Crime in the south east coast is mostly druggies trying and failing to get cash, the dealers feuding over turf, Mafia. Universally we've got Serial Killers stalking
backpackers and tourists. Dunno why, just seems more likely for the victims to be from overseas.


*Although this document proceed to name our Prime Minister as "John Major" and not "John Howard"

Crime in Australia is pretty funny. On the weekend a mate of mine got told to hand over his wallet. He said no and walked off. They didn't even try to kick his ass even though he's skinny as shit, was obviously off his face and it was 3 to 1.

back on topic, i've heard nothing of Britain's crime rates increasing, but all I ever hear on the news these days is how Australian people drink too much. Which may have some truth to it, given I'm underage and a little drunk right now...huh, funny.

EDIT: In response to the victims being foreign, I remember hearing somewhere that on average 22 tourists are murdered every year in Australia.

 

[electric discordian]

I was living in the safest place in england two years ago when my local council reclassified drunken behaviour as a new classification. So if you beat someone up thats assault if you beat someone up whilst drunk thats something entirely different. This happy state of living in a town with the lowest assault rate in Greater Manchester lasted a week until the papers pointed out the lying that was going on, this was the time when I was working as a doorman, if Im not scared walking the streets after dark after doing that then there should be nothing to scare you.

rule of thumb generally do nothing to anyone leave a peaceful and happy life. Get mouthy get killed. People generally dont go to the effort of kicking in your back door and slaughtering you with a machette if you havent done something major to upset them..

Discuss

 

[puffbro1]

I was living in the safest place in england two years ago when my local council reclassified drunken behaviour as a new classification. So if you beat someone up thats assault if you beat someone up whilst drunk thats something entirely different. This happy state of living in a town with the lowest assault rate in Greater Manchester lasted a week until the papers pointed out the lying that was going on, this was the time when I was working as a doorman, if Im not scared walking the streets after dark after doing that then there should be nothing to scare you.

rule of thumb generally do nothing to anyone leave a peaceful and happy life. Get mouthy get killed. People generally dont go to the effort of kicking in your back door and slaughtering you with a machette if you havent done something major to upset them..

Discuss

I think you'll find that you can get your assed kicked without provoking anyone, ie mugging. God knows I've been smashed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your "Get mouthy get killed" rule is something I agree with, but sometimes you don't even have to do that.