Tuesday, March 27, 2007

London schoolchildren are getting crunchier

I always find myself grappling with contradictory feelings when the media covers stories about the rise, or is it the fall, of crime in the UK, particularly London.

One side of my brain, probably the left, tells me that hysterical coverage of crime stories, as put out famously by newspapers such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, is part of a drive by vested interests to scare the crap out of people so that they will agree to more laws, more CCTV, more police. More of the same ineffective bullshit that is a lot more about curbing dissent and generating revenue than making our world a genuinely better place.

Which isn't a good thing

The other side of my brain tells me that it really is getting scarier and nastier out there.

Which is hardly a good thing either

Of course, provided you're willing to indulge in a little conspiracy theorising, you can reconcile the two observations by concluding that crime is being allowed to rise deliberately so that people will call for a more, er, 'policey' state

Which, of course, puts you into David Icke 'Problem-Reaction-Solution' territory

Which means that you are mad, as well as having shocking taste in music

And then I see stories like this one in today's Times...




which, for some reason I cannot quite put my finger on, just had me laughing

... for about a minute longer than a sane person would

.

2 comments:

Garry Nixon said...

It is quite funny. Well, very funny, now I think about it. "Johnny, don't forget your body armour!"

I don't think it is getting worse. (Subjectively), I think there was much more day-today violence when I was a lad.

Stef said...

They're just another thing worth stealing AFAIC. It's basically the same as sending the little ones out onto the streets with £20 notes pinned all over them. It will end in tears, mark my words

As for the violence then and now thing, I can only really speak for South London and there are more drugs, guns and knives about than there used to be. So a fight that 20 years ago might have ended with a few black eyes is more likely to have a more serious outcome. It's not the quantity of violence that's becoming an issue it's the quality