. . . and more ammo to use against the antis. Reports like this are getting to be more and more commonplace, but you can't help but get a feeling of satisfaction mixed with wonderment as these sheeple continue to mill about and wring their hands.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=3 02270&in_review_text_id=246311
Heartless and mindless
The report we carry today on the rapid increase in armed robberies in central London is deeply disquieting.
The number of robberies on banks has increased by 81 per cent in the first four months of this year, and attacks on security vans by 82 per cent. Building societies and betting shops are also suffering. Although most crime statistics, whether put out by the police or the Home Office, are deeply flawed, these are probably reliable.
The culprits are not the professional bank robbers of the past (who have been warned off by tighter security) but reckless young muggers who have armed themselves with guns and are prepared to take chances for the sake of small sums of money.
Their targets are random, which makes it hard for the police to track them, and their aim is to terrorise cash-handlers by acting violently - holding guns to customers' heads or firing into the ceiling.
Gun crime in London, which last year resulted in 26 murders, is on the increase, most of it connected to drug dealing by Yardie-style gangs. But when petty criminals arm themselves, the violence spills into public places. The bluntness of today's police response is a measure of their frustration.
As Superintendent Jon Shatford of the Flying Squad explains, the restrictions placed on them since the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence affair - not least the licence given to petty criminals to make allegations of mistreatment against any policeman who questions them - have made it harder for the Metropolitan Police to carry out effective stop-and-search operations.
"We do want to win hearts and minds, but we have to deal with people who have neither," says Mr Shatford. The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, should know that the growing public belief that the law is weighted against victims and the police in favour of the criminal can only be strengthened by this new wave of armed crime.
-- 30 --
And then an associated story -
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=302270&in_review_text_id=246311
Street mugger turns bank robber
by Justin Davenport
In broad daylight, with crowds on the pavement outside, a man aged about 30 walked into a bank on Euston Road, produced a revolver and demanded the cash. When the cashier hesitated, the gunman calmly grabbed a customer and pointed the gun at his head. Still the cashier refused. Then the robber fired the revolver, the bullet narrowly missing the customer's head.
On another occasion two young men walked into the Harrow Road betting shop and menacingly approached the counter. Wearing hooded jackets, one demanded money while the second acted as a look-out on the door. When staff briefly hesitated the first young man aged in his early twenties quickly pulled a powerful handgun from the pocket of his coat and fired one shot into the ceiling.
It was persuasion enough for the terrified staff to hand over the latest takings. The two men ran off on foot with a haul of a few hundred pounds.
Some weeks later two men walked into a betting shop in Palmers Green and demanded money. This time one produced a revolver and fired two shots into the ceiling before they escaped with cash from the safe.
This is armed robbery in London today. The targets - banks, building societies, betting shops. The robbers - street muggers and juvenile criminals who have graduated to armed robbery, some of them fuelled by drugs such as crack cocaine.
Armed attacks on banks, betting offices and security-company vehicles are soaring, and robbers are using handguns to terrify cashiers and customers.
The number of armed robberies taking place in London is now running at more than four every day. There were 552 armed raids in the first quarter of this year compared with 394 in the same time in 1999 - a 40 per cent increase.
Significantly, the number of robberies on banks has soared by 81 per cent in the first four months of this year (from 50 to 91) compared with the same period last year, while the number of attacks on security vans has increased by 82 per cent (from 44 to 80).
The increases mark a new and disturbing phenomenon in London crime. For years, armed robbery on banks and security vehicles has been declining.
In the past they were the target of professional and highly organised groups. But the onset of tighter security led to a switch by criminals into the less-risky business of drug trafficking.
The latest rise reflects a new breed of armed gangster. Police believe a generation of street robbers is arming itself with guns and graduating to the highly dangerous and potentially lethal variation of an old crime.
Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford, a senior Flying Squad officer, said: "I think there are a number of reasons for this but one is that the profile of the armed robber is changing from the traditional gangs that we are used to dealing with.
"What we are experiencing now is that street robbers are arming themselves and committing robberies on cash in transit vans and banks."
"We now have street robbers who are armed with revolvers. The difference is that they are committing bank raids. These are street criminals who are displaying considerable arrogance and who are prepared to take chances that traditional armed robbers would not have been prepared to take, and take them for a much smaller reward."
Security guards are an increasingly vulnerable target and are being attacked as they carry cash boxes across the pavement to banks.
Gangs are also targeting betting offices, for relatively small sums of money, often just a few hundreds pounds at a time. Last year, raids on betting shops shot up by 60 per cent until the Flying Squad carried out special operations against the gangs and the rise fell.
Mr Shatford said: "Essentially, the new robbers are using banks and betting shops as cash dispensers."
Their method of operation is marked only by a casual opportunism. Late one night 11 days ago in Bethnal Green, an 18-year-old armed with a handgun tried to hijack a Post Office van when it stopped at traffic lights.
Last Tuesday a young man armed with a silver handgun threatened to kill a security guard as he delivered cash to a building society on Upper Street, Islington, before escaping with the cash box.
There are also times when customers are threatened too. Mr Shatford said: " This is very disturbing and traumatic for those who become victims of crime and it is something we have to act on. I think these robbers are displaying greater confidence and one of the reasons for that is the spin-off from the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence investigation.
"Individual police officers have had to look at themselves and the way that their actions are interpreted, and I think in many cases that has meant that stop and search has fallen. It has also given the criminal the opportunity to make unfounded allegations against police officers when they are stopped.
"We do want to win hearts and minds but we have to deal with people who have neither. In that respect the Flying Squad is now going to embark on a series of operations where we are going to come down very hard on these thugs who have graduated to armed robbery and do our utmost to turn this tide."
"We have gone through a period where we have taken the greatest criticism in our history but enough is enough and we have got to go after the criminal now. The Flying Squad is not going to pull any punches when we do it."
The Flying Squad must adapt to deal with the new breed of gangster.
Once we identify individuals who are responsible then we will target them and bring all our considerable resources to bear on locking them up."
Police are reluctant to reveal details on the numbers of suspects they are targeting but most belong to loosely knit gangs and are aged in their late teens or early twenties. Invariably they have a criminal history of street robbery.
Operating in twos or threes, they appear to focus on targets in central London and boroughs such as Hackney, Islington and Southwark, though recent "hotspots" have been in Limehouse and, curiously, Harrow in north-west London.
The robbers-turned-bank-raiders are also learning as they go along. Detectives have noticed many becoming practised in avoiding closed-circuit TV cameras by covering their faces with hoods and balaclavas or simply knocking the cameras off their mountings. Members of the gangs also change their clothes, often two or three times a day, to confuse witnesses and avoid recognition.
The use of guns and the willingness of the criminals to use them, even if only as a threat, is not just worrying Scotland Yard but is also being examined by chief constables across the country.
The other menace faced by the Flying Squad is steaming gangs. In the past few years such operations have come back into fashion and involve large groups of unarmed youths storming banks and buildings societies, grabbing whatever cash they can get.
The new breed of robber is a far cry from the organised "professional" criminals of the Seventies and Eighties. There are still organised armed raids, usually targeting security vehicles, but occasions when hardened criminals come together for a major job are rare these days. Most of the biggest robberies date back to the Eighties such as the £26 million gold bullion raid from Brink's-Mat in 1983, and the Security Express heist in Curtain Road in the City when a gang of 10 men raided the security company's headquarters and got away with £7 million in used bank notes - at the time Britain's biggest cash robbery.
However, only last week, two of London's most feared armed robbers, nicknamed the Wild Bunch, were jailed at the Old Bailey. Francis Pope, 43, and Charles Tozer, 47, who both have a long history of brutal armed robberies, were jailed for 30 years each at the Old Bailey.
The old-style gangs are easier for the Flying Squad to tackle because they conform to certain patterns. The new breed of armed robber is less predictable. Mr Shatford said: "Even the robbers do not know what they will be doing when they leave home. They change their mind on a whim."
"The Flying Squad has always been extremely good at dealing with organised robbers, we are now having to adapt to deal with disorganised robbery."
Police are encouraging a greater use of informants to tackle the robbers, and are negotiating with the British Banking Association to offer a £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of offenders.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited July 28, 2000).]
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=3 02270&in_review_text_id=246311
Heartless and mindless
The report we carry today on the rapid increase in armed robberies in central London is deeply disquieting.
The number of robberies on banks has increased by 81 per cent in the first four months of this year, and attacks on security vans by 82 per cent. Building societies and betting shops are also suffering. Although most crime statistics, whether put out by the police or the Home Office, are deeply flawed, these are probably reliable.
The culprits are not the professional bank robbers of the past (who have been warned off by tighter security) but reckless young muggers who have armed themselves with guns and are prepared to take chances for the sake of small sums of money.
Their targets are random, which makes it hard for the police to track them, and their aim is to terrorise cash-handlers by acting violently - holding guns to customers' heads or firing into the ceiling.
Gun crime in London, which last year resulted in 26 murders, is on the increase, most of it connected to drug dealing by Yardie-style gangs. But when petty criminals arm themselves, the violence spills into public places. The bluntness of today's police response is a measure of their frustration.
As Superintendent Jon Shatford of the Flying Squad explains, the restrictions placed on them since the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence affair - not least the licence given to petty criminals to make allegations of mistreatment against any policeman who questions them - have made it harder for the Metropolitan Police to carry out effective stop-and-search operations.
"We do want to win hearts and minds, but we have to deal with people who have neither," says Mr Shatford. The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, should know that the growing public belief that the law is weighted against victims and the police in favour of the criminal can only be strengthened by this new wave of armed crime.
-- 30 --
And then an associated story -
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/top_story.html?in_review_id=302270&in_review_text_id=246311
Street mugger turns bank robber
by Justin Davenport
In broad daylight, with crowds on the pavement outside, a man aged about 30 walked into a bank on Euston Road, produced a revolver and demanded the cash. When the cashier hesitated, the gunman calmly grabbed a customer and pointed the gun at his head. Still the cashier refused. Then the robber fired the revolver, the bullet narrowly missing the customer's head.
On another occasion two young men walked into the Harrow Road betting shop and menacingly approached the counter. Wearing hooded jackets, one demanded money while the second acted as a look-out on the door. When staff briefly hesitated the first young man aged in his early twenties quickly pulled a powerful handgun from the pocket of his coat and fired one shot into the ceiling.
It was persuasion enough for the terrified staff to hand over the latest takings. The two men ran off on foot with a haul of a few hundred pounds.
Some weeks later two men walked into a betting shop in Palmers Green and demanded money. This time one produced a revolver and fired two shots into the ceiling before they escaped with cash from the safe.
This is armed robbery in London today. The targets - banks, building societies, betting shops. The robbers - street muggers and juvenile criminals who have graduated to armed robbery, some of them fuelled by drugs such as crack cocaine.
Armed attacks on banks, betting offices and security-company vehicles are soaring, and robbers are using handguns to terrify cashiers and customers.
The number of armed robberies taking place in London is now running at more than four every day. There were 552 armed raids in the first quarter of this year compared with 394 in the same time in 1999 - a 40 per cent increase.
Significantly, the number of robberies on banks has soared by 81 per cent in the first four months of this year (from 50 to 91) compared with the same period last year, while the number of attacks on security vans has increased by 82 per cent (from 44 to 80).
The increases mark a new and disturbing phenomenon in London crime. For years, armed robbery on banks and security vehicles has been declining.
In the past they were the target of professional and highly organised groups. But the onset of tighter security led to a switch by criminals into the less-risky business of drug trafficking.
The latest rise reflects a new breed of armed gangster. Police believe a generation of street robbers is arming itself with guns and graduating to the highly dangerous and potentially lethal variation of an old crime.
Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford, a senior Flying Squad officer, said: "I think there are a number of reasons for this but one is that the profile of the armed robber is changing from the traditional gangs that we are used to dealing with.
"What we are experiencing now is that street robbers are arming themselves and committing robberies on cash in transit vans and banks."
"We now have street robbers who are armed with revolvers. The difference is that they are committing bank raids. These are street criminals who are displaying considerable arrogance and who are prepared to take chances that traditional armed robbers would not have been prepared to take, and take them for a much smaller reward."
Security guards are an increasingly vulnerable target and are being attacked as they carry cash boxes across the pavement to banks.
Gangs are also targeting betting offices, for relatively small sums of money, often just a few hundreds pounds at a time. Last year, raids on betting shops shot up by 60 per cent until the Flying Squad carried out special operations against the gangs and the rise fell.
Mr Shatford said: "Essentially, the new robbers are using banks and betting shops as cash dispensers."
Their method of operation is marked only by a casual opportunism. Late one night 11 days ago in Bethnal Green, an 18-year-old armed with a handgun tried to hijack a Post Office van when it stopped at traffic lights.
Last Tuesday a young man armed with a silver handgun threatened to kill a security guard as he delivered cash to a building society on Upper Street, Islington, before escaping with the cash box.
There are also times when customers are threatened too. Mr Shatford said: " This is very disturbing and traumatic for those who become victims of crime and it is something we have to act on. I think these robbers are displaying greater confidence and one of the reasons for that is the spin-off from the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence investigation.
"Individual police officers have had to look at themselves and the way that their actions are interpreted, and I think in many cases that has meant that stop and search has fallen. It has also given the criminal the opportunity to make unfounded allegations against police officers when they are stopped.
"We do want to win hearts and minds but we have to deal with people who have neither. In that respect the Flying Squad is now going to embark on a series of operations where we are going to come down very hard on these thugs who have graduated to armed robbery and do our utmost to turn this tide."
"We have gone through a period where we have taken the greatest criticism in our history but enough is enough and we have got to go after the criminal now. The Flying Squad is not going to pull any punches when we do it."
The Flying Squad must adapt to deal with the new breed of gangster.
Once we identify individuals who are responsible then we will target them and bring all our considerable resources to bear on locking them up."
Police are reluctant to reveal details on the numbers of suspects they are targeting but most belong to loosely knit gangs and are aged in their late teens or early twenties. Invariably they have a criminal history of street robbery.
Operating in twos or threes, they appear to focus on targets in central London and boroughs such as Hackney, Islington and Southwark, though recent "hotspots" have been in Limehouse and, curiously, Harrow in north-west London.
The robbers-turned-bank-raiders are also learning as they go along. Detectives have noticed many becoming practised in avoiding closed-circuit TV cameras by covering their faces with hoods and balaclavas or simply knocking the cameras off their mountings. Members of the gangs also change their clothes, often two or three times a day, to confuse witnesses and avoid recognition.
The use of guns and the willingness of the criminals to use them, even if only as a threat, is not just worrying Scotland Yard but is also being examined by chief constables across the country.
The other menace faced by the Flying Squad is steaming gangs. In the past few years such operations have come back into fashion and involve large groups of unarmed youths storming banks and buildings societies, grabbing whatever cash they can get.
The new breed of robber is a far cry from the organised "professional" criminals of the Seventies and Eighties. There are still organised armed raids, usually targeting security vehicles, but occasions when hardened criminals come together for a major job are rare these days. Most of the biggest robberies date back to the Eighties such as the £26 million gold bullion raid from Brink's-Mat in 1983, and the Security Express heist in Curtain Road in the City when a gang of 10 men raided the security company's headquarters and got away with £7 million in used bank notes - at the time Britain's biggest cash robbery.
However, only last week, two of London's most feared armed robbers, nicknamed the Wild Bunch, were jailed at the Old Bailey. Francis Pope, 43, and Charles Tozer, 47, who both have a long history of brutal armed robberies, were jailed for 30 years each at the Old Bailey.
The old-style gangs are easier for the Flying Squad to tackle because they conform to certain patterns. The new breed of armed robber is less predictable. Mr Shatford said: "Even the robbers do not know what they will be doing when they leave home. They change their mind on a whim."
"The Flying Squad has always been extremely good at dealing with organised robbers, we are now having to adapt to deal with disorganised robbery."
Police are encouraging a greater use of informants to tackle the robbers, and are negotiating with the British Banking Association to offer a £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of offenders.
© Associated Newspapers Ltd.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited July 28, 2000).]