This guy is asking for it -- a little bit too Pollyanna-ish for my taste. And misleading. Not everyone lets their neighbors know they have guns, for instance.
They have some other interesting links at the bottom of the article. Check out the June 9th article "Just how lawless is Britain today?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000141109560173&rtmo=aqBdXT9J&atmo=99 999999&pg=/et/00/7/2/wpres102.html
America - so safe we don't lock the doors
By James Langton
KEYS? The lawyer for the couple whose house we were about to buy looked confused and patted the pockets of his expensive Italian suit. "Keys to the house," we explained.
The lawyer looked at the estate agent who looked at the man from the mortgage company. They all looked puzzled - for there were no keys. And so, for the past two years, we have lived in a house where the doors are never locked. Nor are the cars, sitting in the driveway. My wife often leaves her handbag on the front seat overnight.
To avoid losing them, I usually leave my keys in the ignition. If the children forget to put their bikes away the worst that might happen is that they get wet. This is the reality of suburban life as lived by millions of Americans. Crime, as Britain understands it, does not exist here. A burglary would be almost as astonishing as a murder.
Cars go to the scrapyard with their original stereos intact. The wholesale looting and pillaging which seems to plague almost every corner of Britain these days simply does not occur. Bad things happen, of course. Some rowdy 12-year-olds used the carved pumpkin for a football on Hallowe'en night last year. Then there was the gang of teenage hooligans that smashed up the interior of a local chapel. That was almost 40 years ago. People still talk about it.
If this sounds flippant or smug, it is meant to be neither. Before moving to the United States, we lived for 10 years in Stoke Newington, a district of north London popular with media folk who cannot quite afford Islington. In the space of a year, the car stereo was stolen three times, a relatively mild rate of attrition, except that the last time it was a pull-out model left inside the house and taken in a burglary which stripped everything of value from the ground floor.
You cannot buy peace of mind in London. To do that, you have to move to another continent - and it takes a while to understand that crime does not have to be a way of life. Our first house was in an urban corner of New Jersey, where, on a clear day, the steel and concrete turrets of Manhattan shimmered on the horizon.
More significantly, while it was no more than a 10-minute drive to the organic supermarket and Starbucks in one direction, in the other was one of the toughest ghettos in America. Yet people went to bed with open windows and unlocked doors and the local garden centre left its geraniums unattended on the pavement every night.
Figures show that burglary and muggings occur at roughly half the rate they do in Britain. These are highly misleading statistics. Most crime is corralled in the deprived corners of the big cities. Even in Manhattan, the biggest worry for most car owners isn't waking up to windscreen fragments and wires trailing from the dashboard or a coin dragged across the paintwork. It is just finding somewhere to park.
The figures on shootings don't tell you much either. Yes, Americans are more likely to be blown away during the course of criminal activity, but the sad truth is that unless you are young, black or brown and male, this is not something to lose sleep over. The horror stories; the rapes in Central Park, even the classroom massacres, make headlines because they are so out of the ordinary.
Huge tracts of America, the hinterland that rolls for hours below the wing on a flight from New York to the California coast, are free from serious criminal activity in a way that is unimaginable in all but the most remote British hamlet. The case of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who shot a burglar dead, made headlines here because it shocked ordinary Americans as much as Britons.
Forget the brooding sense of violence which haunts even the quaintest market town at closing time on a Saturday night. While no one in their right mind would linger in the barrio of south central Los Angeles or stray outside the French Quarter of New Orleans, it is probably safer to spend an evening in parts of increasingly gentrified Harlem than on the streets of Colchester or Andover.
What makes the difference? America sends six times as many people to prison as Britain. It is said that the prospect of an irate homeowner with a pistol under the pillow keeps many a burglar away. Well, I don't know of a single neighbour with a gun in the house, while the vast prison population is largely the result of a singularly ineffective war against drugs.
Perhaps a highly visible police force makes a difference, even if most officers outside the inner cities spend their days writing speeding tickets. I suspect, though, that it's mainly that Americans are a pretty law-abiding bunch. They generally don't take what they haven't earned.
One of the few times they get seriously jittery about crime is travelling abroad, Britain and Europe being no exception. For those of us who have journeyed in the opposite direction, the celebrations this week for July 4 represent another kind of Independence Day: a liberation from the tyranny of crime
-- 30 --
But . . . to a degree, this guy backs him up.
Interesting comment on atmosphere - I never thought about it but he's right.
Anyone here can comment on Amsterdam?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000141109560173&rtmo=QxpL3LLR&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/6/9/ncrim209.html
I won't live in a climate of fear
Michael Richardson, a University of London lecturer, is taking up a professorship at Leiden, Holland. Graftiti(sic), burglary and street crime are among the reasons for his decision to leave the city he loves
I MOVED to London's West End thinking I was starting an idyllic existence at the crossroads of Theatreland, Covent Garden, Chinatown and Soho.
But in the two years since I arrived I have seen more crime than in all my previous 34 years, far more than I ever saw as a student living in the West End 15 years ago.
And more than when I lived in Milwaukee, a city famed for its serial murders, crack houses and drive-by shootings. I have fond memories of Milwaukee. My memories of the West End will be more bittersweet.
I was born in London and I love London. I miss it terribly when I am away. But things are changing fast. Statistics show that some districts have seen street crime rocket by 40 per cent in a few months. Compared with the Soho nail bombing, street crime is a low-level annoyance. But it is relentless and corrosive.
Relentless, because it means that ordinary people have to run a daily gauntlet of hassle from drug dealers and addicts. Corrosive, because it drives residents, tourists and businesses away. Police foot patrols are rare. Officers drive past in vans, but seem reluctant to intervene in trouble.
I believe the police are struggling with an impossible job. But it is clear that there is no political will in New Labour to tackle crime. I don't pretend that Britain is uniquely awful. There are graffiti, muggings and drugs everywhere in Europe. I am only too aware that Holland has a crime problem, including high murder rates in Amsterdam.
But there are no statistics on atmosphere, and atmosphere determines how safe you feel, how fearless the criminal feels, and how you both behave as a result.
Atmosphere depends on the amount of graffiti, the lighting, the cleanliness, the visibility of the police, the conduct of passers-by.
When you walk around Amsterdam, there are plenty of police, people are friendly, the roads are clean and, despite the graffiti, there is a safe atmosphere.
both © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited July 02, 2000).]
They have some other interesting links at the bottom of the article. Check out the June 9th article "Just how lawless is Britain today?"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000141109560173&rtmo=aqBdXT9J&atmo=99 999999&pg=/et/00/7/2/wpres102.html
America - so safe we don't lock the doors
By James Langton
KEYS? The lawyer for the couple whose house we were about to buy looked confused and patted the pockets of his expensive Italian suit. "Keys to the house," we explained.
The lawyer looked at the estate agent who looked at the man from the mortgage company. They all looked puzzled - for there were no keys. And so, for the past two years, we have lived in a house where the doors are never locked. Nor are the cars, sitting in the driveway. My wife often leaves her handbag on the front seat overnight.
To avoid losing them, I usually leave my keys in the ignition. If the children forget to put their bikes away the worst that might happen is that they get wet. This is the reality of suburban life as lived by millions of Americans. Crime, as Britain understands it, does not exist here. A burglary would be almost as astonishing as a murder.
Cars go to the scrapyard with their original stereos intact. The wholesale looting and pillaging which seems to plague almost every corner of Britain these days simply does not occur. Bad things happen, of course. Some rowdy 12-year-olds used the carved pumpkin for a football on Hallowe'en night last year. Then there was the gang of teenage hooligans that smashed up the interior of a local chapel. That was almost 40 years ago. People still talk about it.
If this sounds flippant or smug, it is meant to be neither. Before moving to the United States, we lived for 10 years in Stoke Newington, a district of north London popular with media folk who cannot quite afford Islington. In the space of a year, the car stereo was stolen three times, a relatively mild rate of attrition, except that the last time it was a pull-out model left inside the house and taken in a burglary which stripped everything of value from the ground floor.
You cannot buy peace of mind in London. To do that, you have to move to another continent - and it takes a while to understand that crime does not have to be a way of life. Our first house was in an urban corner of New Jersey, where, on a clear day, the steel and concrete turrets of Manhattan shimmered on the horizon.
More significantly, while it was no more than a 10-minute drive to the organic supermarket and Starbucks in one direction, in the other was one of the toughest ghettos in America. Yet people went to bed with open windows and unlocked doors and the local garden centre left its geraniums unattended on the pavement every night.
Figures show that burglary and muggings occur at roughly half the rate they do in Britain. These are highly misleading statistics. Most crime is corralled in the deprived corners of the big cities. Even in Manhattan, the biggest worry for most car owners isn't waking up to windscreen fragments and wires trailing from the dashboard or a coin dragged across the paintwork. It is just finding somewhere to park.
The figures on shootings don't tell you much either. Yes, Americans are more likely to be blown away during the course of criminal activity, but the sad truth is that unless you are young, black or brown and male, this is not something to lose sleep over. The horror stories; the rapes in Central Park, even the classroom massacres, make headlines because they are so out of the ordinary.
Huge tracts of America, the hinterland that rolls for hours below the wing on a flight from New York to the California coast, are free from serious criminal activity in a way that is unimaginable in all but the most remote British hamlet. The case of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who shot a burglar dead, made headlines here because it shocked ordinary Americans as much as Britons.
Forget the brooding sense of violence which haunts even the quaintest market town at closing time on a Saturday night. While no one in their right mind would linger in the barrio of south central Los Angeles or stray outside the French Quarter of New Orleans, it is probably safer to spend an evening in parts of increasingly gentrified Harlem than on the streets of Colchester or Andover.
What makes the difference? America sends six times as many people to prison as Britain. It is said that the prospect of an irate homeowner with a pistol under the pillow keeps many a burglar away. Well, I don't know of a single neighbour with a gun in the house, while the vast prison population is largely the result of a singularly ineffective war against drugs.
Perhaps a highly visible police force makes a difference, even if most officers outside the inner cities spend their days writing speeding tickets. I suspect, though, that it's mainly that Americans are a pretty law-abiding bunch. They generally don't take what they haven't earned.
One of the few times they get seriously jittery about crime is travelling abroad, Britain and Europe being no exception. For those of us who have journeyed in the opposite direction, the celebrations this week for July 4 represent another kind of Independence Day: a liberation from the tyranny of crime
-- 30 --
But . . . to a degree, this guy backs him up.
Interesting comment on atmosphere - I never thought about it but he's right.
Anyone here can comment on Amsterdam?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000141109560173&rtmo=QxpL3LLR&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/6/9/ncrim209.html
I won't live in a climate of fear
Michael Richardson, a University of London lecturer, is taking up a professorship at Leiden, Holland. Graftiti(sic), burglary and street crime are among the reasons for his decision to leave the city he loves
I MOVED to London's West End thinking I was starting an idyllic existence at the crossroads of Theatreland, Covent Garden, Chinatown and Soho.
But in the two years since I arrived I have seen more crime than in all my previous 34 years, far more than I ever saw as a student living in the West End 15 years ago.
And more than when I lived in Milwaukee, a city famed for its serial murders, crack houses and drive-by shootings. I have fond memories of Milwaukee. My memories of the West End will be more bittersweet.
I was born in London and I love London. I miss it terribly when I am away. But things are changing fast. Statistics show that some districts have seen street crime rocket by 40 per cent in a few months. Compared with the Soho nail bombing, street crime is a low-level annoyance. But it is relentless and corrosive.
Relentless, because it means that ordinary people have to run a daily gauntlet of hassle from drug dealers and addicts. Corrosive, because it drives residents, tourists and businesses away. Police foot patrols are rare. Officers drive past in vans, but seem reluctant to intervene in trouble.
I believe the police are struggling with an impossible job. But it is clear that there is no political will in New Labour to tackle crime. I don't pretend that Britain is uniquely awful. There are graffiti, muggings and drugs everywhere in Europe. I am only too aware that Holland has a crime problem, including high murder rates in Amsterdam.
But there are no statistics on atmosphere, and atmosphere determines how safe you feel, how fearless the criminal feels, and how you both behave as a result.
Atmosphere depends on the amount of graffiti, the lighting, the cleanliness, the visibility of the police, the conduct of passers-by.
When you walk around Amsterdam, there are plenty of police, people are friendly, the roads are clean and, despite the graffiti, there is a safe atmosphere.
both © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited July 02, 2000).]