Sunday - September 21, 2008

HOW FREE IS ANY SOCIETY THAT MUST LIVE WITH THIS?  MY GUESS IS NOT MUCH.

Mere illegal possession of a knife is not counted in the totals; if it was, the figures would be much higher .

I was looking for something else when I ran across this.
So it raises a question re. guns.

If guns were as easy to get here as they are in the states, might the violent crime figures be even higher as the scum who do these things would think nothing of randomly firing on whim.  Or into crowds. And keep in mind the terrorist threat here.  Or maybe the violence is of a different yet same nature as home (USA). Hard to explain different but same.

Brits and others on this side see us as a violent prone society.  I suppose the movies and TV provide gist for that mill as violence in both, (in the extreme) has become .... ‘entertainment?’ But what I have seen here over the last four and counting years is very far from an orderly society.

Knife crime worse than thought, new figures show
The true scale of the knife epidemic is much worse than Government statistics show, a Sunday Telegraph investigation has found.

By Ben Leach
Last Updated: 1:15AM BST 21 Sep 2008

Police figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that forces in England and Wales are on course to record a total of 38,000 serious knife crimes this year – more than 100 a day.

The figure is at least two-thirds higher than last year’s total of 22,151 offences, announced by the Home Office in July when it unveiled its first annual count of knife crimes.

The sharp rise has come about because ministers have changed the counting rules, in response to complaints that key categories of crime were excluded from last year’s total.

As a result, this year’s statistics will not be directly comparable with last year’s. Critics said this defeated the purpose of introducing the knife crime count, which was intended to allow police to monitor year-on-year trends.

Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “Knife crime is a major challenge for the police service.

“In order to address this challenge we need to have credible and meaningful statistics relating to the number of offences where a knife has been used.

“It is of serious concern that the count introduced by the Home Office to record year-on-year changes has been changed after one year, and it questions whether ministers consulted widely enough before introducing the categories.”

The Sunday Telegraph has obtained data from 29 of the 43 police forces, covering more than half the population. Across those force areas, the knife crime count from April to June—the first three-month period under the new counting rules—was 71 per cent higher than the average quarterly total in the previous year.

Allowing for forces that did not provide figures, this year’s nationwide total is on course to rise by around 15,000 offences.

The reason for the increase is that knife offences categorised as actual bodily harm, rape, sexual assault or threats to kill, which were all excluded from last year’s knife crime count, are all included this year.

Cases of wounding, grievous bodily harm and knifepoint robbery, which made up the bulk of last year’s figures, will continue to be included this year. Mere illegal possession of a knife is not counted in the totals; if it was, the figures would be much higher.

The figures published in July showed that England’s big urban areas—London, Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Merseyside—suffer most from knife crime. However, there were also hundreds of offences comitted in shire force areas including Devon and Cornwall, Avon and Somerset, Hampshire, Suffolk, Humberside, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Northumbria.

Until last year, police counted crimes by the offence - such as assault, robbery or burglary - rather than by the kind of weapon used. In recent years, annual totals have included around 100,000 robberies, 20,000 serious woundings and 800 murders.

A leaked Scotland Yard memo this month revealed that there are “serious concerns” among officers about changes to recording practices for knife crime, gun crime and GBH, which could lead to increases in the published headline figures for all three crime categories.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We have made it clear that tackling knife crime is a top priority and is not just about statistics.

“We are particularly concerned about young people carrying knives and the age of victims and offenders, and we want to make sure we get a full and accurate picture of what is happening to improve our understanding about crime on our streets.”

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said it was alarming that the Government was underestimating the scale of knife crime.

He said: “Knife crime is a scourge that is harming and all too often destroying young lives up and down the country. You cannot begin to combat a problem if you cannot even measure it accurately.”

http://tinyurl.com/4gq8ut

Posted by Drew458     on 09/21/2008 at 03:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • UK •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner