Edinburgh - Cyclist beaten by 30-strong gang

[Tony Raven]

Dave Larrington wrote:
>
> Probably true; however people are not necessarily /right/ in being worried about violent crime.
> Lurid crime stories make for better headlines and more exciting television.

Absolutely

Number of children killed by stranger paedophiles - ~10 Massive public and media concern and
police effort

Number of children killed by family and friends - ~100 Modest concern and rarely in the media

Number of children killed by cars - ~200 Well its just one of those things isn't it

Tony

 

[Eugenio Mastrov]

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 13:05:14 +0000, Simon Brooke wrote:

> And when is the last time this actually happened to a member of your family? How many personal
> friends of yours (not 'friend of friends', or 'someone the man down the pub was talking about')
> have been victims of violent attack in the last five years?

'ere i am, guv.

Mugged at knifepoint in 2000 (Camden Town, London), burgled in 2002 (Highgate, but I wasn't in, so
it doesn't count as violent crime, I guess), had a paper cup full of ice thrown at me from a van a
couple of weeks ago (Highgate again), as I reported in the NG, resulting in some neck pain, a cut on
the side of the head and a knee bruised enough to prevent me from cycling for a couple of days.. OK,
I live in London, *and* I'm a foreigner, so I'm an easy target in the most crime-ridden area in the
country, but still...

Eugenio

--
Anxiety, n.: The first time you can't do it a second time. Panic, n.: The second time you can't do
it the first time.

 

[Nick]

> > Personally I fear a violent attack on me or my family, probably in an attempt to steal something
> > (such as my car or bike or during a
burglary).
>
> And when is the last time this actually happened to a member of your family? How many personal
> friends of yours (not 'friend of friends', or 'someone the man down the pub was talking about')
> have been victims of violent attack in the last five years?
>
Mate of mine - attempted car-jacking - managed to escpape with minor injuries and damage to car
Neighbour - disturbed burglars upon returning home from holiday and ended up being dragged down
the road by burglars' car and hospitalized Family member - road rage victim (in a traffic jam!) Me
- confronted intruder in office - not violent but potentially a very dodgy situation Work
colleague - mugged

These are all absolutely true and have happened within the last two years.

 

[Nick]

"Tony Raven" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dave Larrington wrote:
> >
> > Probably true; however people are not necessarily /right/ in being
worried
> > about violent crime. Lurid crime stories make for better headlines and
more
> > exciting television.
>
> Absolutely
>
> Number of children killed by stranger paedophiles - ~10 Massive public and media concern and
> police effort
>
> Number of children killed by family and friends - ~100 Modest concern and rarely in the media
>
> Number of children killed by cars - ~200 Well its just one of those things isn't it

You've found the answer then: let's ban cars. I knew this was the real motivation here.

 

[David Martin]

On 19/2/04 1:20 pm, in article [email protected],
"Nick" <[email protected]> wrote:

>>> Personally I fear a violent attack on me or my family, probably in an attempt to steal something
>>> (such as my car or bike or during a
> burglary).
>>
>> And when is the last time this actually happened to a member of your family? How many personal
>> friends of yours (not 'friend of friends', or 'someone the man down the pub was talking about')
>> have been victims of violent attack in the last five years?

Neighbour had some stuff lifted from the back garden a week ago. They also had their
Discovery nicked.

We have had numerous wing mirrors stolen from the car. The most bizarre was someone stealing the
house number from the front of the house. That *really* ****** me off.

..d

 

[Nick]

"Graeme" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "Dave Larrington" <[email protected]> wrote in news:[email protected]
> berlin.de:
>
> > Probably true; however people are not necessarily /right/ in being worried about violent crime.
>
> I totally agree. Yes, that's even with what has happened to me in the past as detailed in an
> earlier post. The media seek "exciting" stories and sensationalise them, giving people the
> impression that the world is much worse than it is.
>
I don't disagree, but the Blair mantra "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" is still very
easy to dismiss as hype.

 

[Alan Braggins]

In article <[email protected]>, Tony Raven wrote:
>Number of children killed by stranger paedophiles - ~10 Massive public and media concern and
>police effort
>
>Number of children killed by family and friends - ~100 Modest concern and rarely in the media

But it is still rational for almost all people to be more worried about the danger from strangers. I
know I'm not a paedophile, and I'm reasonably sure my family and friends aren't, so although the
danger to a _random_ child is mainly from family and friends, that's a danger I can largely discount
when considering my _own_ children. And most people are in the same situation.

Though of course I'm more worried about the danger from cars.

 

[Chris Malcolm]

Eugenio Mastroviti <[email protected]> writes:

>On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 13:05:14 +0000, Simon Brooke wrote:

>> And when is the last time this actually happened to a member of your family? How many personal
>> friends of yours (not 'friend of friends', or 'someone the man down the pub was talking about')
>> have been victims of violent attack in the last five years?

>'ere i am, guv.

>Mugged at knifepoint in 2000 (Camden Town, London), burgled in 2002 (Highgate, but I wasn't in, so
>it doesn't count as violent crime, I guess), had a paper cup full of ice thrown at me from a van a
>couple of weeks ago (Highgate again), as I reported in the NG, resulting in some neck pain, a cut
>on the side of the head and a knee bruised enough to prevent me from cycling for a couple of days..
>OK, I live in London, *and* I'm a foreigner, so I'm an easy target in the most crime-ridden area in
>the country, but still...

I no longer live in the posh Edinburgh street where every year at least one female friend was
relieved of her handbag by muggers and at least two friend's overnight parked cars were broken into.
So all that's recently happened is I was mugged at knifepoint in the middle of the day just outside
my office -- attempted mugging, I managed to escape with wallet and epidermis intact.

--
Chris Malcolm [email protected] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

 

[Graeme]

"Nick" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> I don't disagree, but the Blair mantra "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" is still
> very easy to dismiss as hype.

I've yet to see any hard evidence of their claim. Yes, increasing amounts of people are being locked
away, but that does little, if anything, to address the root causes. Part of the problem is that the
causes are not necessarily something which any government would like to admit to, e.g. alienation of
much of the population to the extent that they don't really care a f*ck what happens as long as the
bad stuff doesn't happen to them.

Graeme

 

[Tony Raven]

Nick wrote:
>
> You've found the answer then: let's ban cars. I knew this was the real motivation here.

Heavens no, I'd not be able to drive my bike to the ride ;-) I would like to see
manslaughter/murder/GBH with a car treated on a par, in terms of police effort and sentencing, with
manslaughter/murder/GBH using other weapons.

Tony

 

[Peter Amey]

[snip] The most bizarre was
> someone stealing the house number from the front of the house. That *really* ****** me off.
>

Be careful, they'll probably screw it to their house and then you'll start to get all their speeding
tickets and congestion charge bills

Peter

 

[Tony Raven]

"Alan Braggins" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> I know I'm not a paedophile, and I'm reasonably sure my family and friends aren't, so although the
> danger to a _random_ child is mainly from family and friends, that's a danger I can largely
> discount when considering my _own_ children. And most people are in the same situation.
>

That's what most people think including all those who didn't suspect Ian Huntley even through the
initial police investigation.

Tony

 

[Chris Malcolm]

[email protected] (Alan Braggins) writes:

>In article <[email protected]>, Tony Raven wrote:
>>Number of children killed by stranger paedophiles - ~10 Massive public and media concern and
>>police effort

>>Number of children killed by family and friends - ~100 Modest concern and rarely in the media

>But it is still rational for almost all people to be more worried about the danger from strangers.
>I know I'm not a paedophile, and I'm reasonably sure my family and friends aren't, so although the
>danger to a _random_ child is mainly from family and friends, that's a danger I can largely
>discount when considering my _own_ children. And most people are in the same situation.

>Though of course I'm more worried about the danger from cars.

What's more the streets are full of them, and the police are doing nothing about it.

--
Chris Malcolm [email protected] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

 

[Just Zis Guy]

On 19 Feb 2004 17:44:15 +0000 (GMT), [email protected] (Alan
Braggins) wrote in message
<[email protected]>:

>it is still rational for almost all people to be more worried about the danger from strangers. I
>know I'm not a paedophile, and I'm reasonably sure my family and friends aren't, so although the
>danger to a _random_ child is mainly from family and friends, that's a danger I can largely
>discount when considering my _own_ children.

A view which I am sure was equally strong among those who subsequently discovered they were wrong in
the case of one family member.

Guy
===
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://chapmancentral.demon.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

 

[Graeme]

[email protected] (Chris Malcolm) wrote in news:c1369d$m4c$1
@scotsman.ed.ac.uk:

> I no longer live in the posh Edinburgh street where every year at least one female friend was
> relieved of her handbag by muggers and at least two friend's overnight parked cars were
> broken into.

Guys, I think we're giving the wrong impression of Edinburgh here. It's a really nice place,
relatively safe too! Several million tourists can't be wrong, well, many are American so maybe
they can )

Graeme

 

[Gawnsoft]

On 19 Feb 2004 17:44:15 +0000 (GMT), [email protected] (Alan
Braggins) wrote (more or less):
>I know I'm not a paedophile, and I'm reasonably sure my family and friends aren't,

Isn't it that sort of certainty that allows 'family & friend' paedophoiles to continue their
behaviour over extended periods of time? Cheers, Euan Gawnsoft: http://www.gawnsoft.co.sr
Symbian/Epoc wiki: http://html.dnsalias.net:1122 Smalltalk links (harvested from
comp.lang.smalltalk) http://html.dnsalias.net/gawnsoft/smalltalk

 

[Timothy Baldwin]

In message <[email protected]>, Simon Brooke
<[email protected]> wrote:

> And when is the last time this actually happened to a member of your family? How many personal
> friends of yours (not 'friend of friends', or 'someone the man down the pub was talking about')
> have been victims of violent attack in the last five years?

I was robbed at knife-point, for some cigarettes, which I didn't have. I was assulted, then a
confession was posted on a website. A couple had their car firebombed, confession also published. A
couple of housemates had their house surronded by thugs threatening to break in, the police did not
turn up. One was attacked in front of a crowd, by Mark Collet (then BNP youth leader), whilst
campaigning for him to be expelled from Leeds Universtiy (Students') Union. We've been illegally
detained by West Yorkshire Police twice, on the first occasion, one can add accesory to genocide the
charges as they were protecting a known war criminal! I was chased with a car whilst election
campaigning in a riot, and had to jump into gardens to escape. I've had stones thrown down at me
from the top of a hill. My parents have been shot at, whilst travelling in a motorcaravan.

That's 3 violent crimes against me and my parents without an apparent political motive.

> Violent crime anywhere in Britain is rare.

Does that include school bullying?

--
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