March 31, 2008
Yabbos
My UK friends love to tease me about America's wicked gun culture. They'll be up on the latest Michael Moore stats. A friend who worked there for several years has a daughter who is afraid to visit the states.
I love Britain, cradle of liberty and all, but they, and my friends, and my friend's daughter purposefully miss one important crime statistic: the slope of the curve. In the UK, crime is escalating. While they lack the dramatic gang drive-bys, the risk of being beat up for your mobile phone climbs higher each year.
They have effectively disarmed the populace and convinced Britons that their personal safety and property rights will be attended to by the state. The state lacks the resources and the will to provide it. So the advice is to "not go out." I'm a big fan of Theodore Dalrymple and recommend his "Life at the Bottom." I was prepared to think that he was a little over the top in his storytelling, and that he was reporting from the worst areas in Britain.
Samizdata relates a couple personal stories and links to a TIME magazine article on Britain's Mean Streets.
The 40-year-old heads his own company advising on mergers and acquisitions, and usually strides through life like a Master of the Universe. This evening, though, he looks shaken. Two days earlier, he was accosted outside his central London home by eight kids — the youngest was 11 — who punched him to the ground, hustled him to the nearest cash machine and forced him to reveal his PIN number. After a series of attacks in the area, local residents have gathered in Steen's apartment to talk to the policeman handling the case. His advice: "Don't go out unless you have to."
This is the land of Churchill. "We will hide in the fields, we will hide in the beaches!"
Pardon my ghoulish flippancy. This story really does sadden me, but it also points out the first stop on the road to gun control.
In Harlem, it's become a common tactic for groups of street punks to have big kids knock a victim down, and the little ones rifle through the victim's pockets. That's pure robbery, though.
Eight kids who "forced" that Steen chap to reveal his PIN? I hope they were bigger than him and/or wielded some serious weaponry, because if they had just their fists, then that man is just a damn coward. These teens know that crime pays, because the victims appear all too ready to give up and/or unable to defend themselves adequately. People need to start stand up for themselves -- and arm themselves even with just a steak knife. After a few punks get stabbed, let's see if Brits become "outraged" over someone defending himself, or if someone defends himself and is prosecuted for it.
And then there's the lead-in picture. Oh, how sad, this Abnett wants to work but can't because he did prison time, blah blah, so he'll have to turn to crime again? It's society's fault, obviously, not his fault for doing crimes in the first place.
For these punks, the only solution isn't long prison times, but to break their legs (I say that literally) and throw them back on the streets they came from.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at April 1, 2008 1:14 PMIt gets worse, Perry, not only have they taken firearms away, they have also prosecuted several high profile cases against those who have, as you suggested, used other weapons. If you dare to fight back in Blighty you will be prosecuted, while the yobbo who was robbing you is let off easy.
I would also suggest that Harlem would be an American area most closely resembling British gun laws (how's that working out?)
Posted by: jk at April 1, 2008 1:33 PMYou tell me. Broderick Hehman is pushing up daisies, and his killers get to spend just a few years in juvie.
http://media.www.nyunews.com/media/storage/paper869/news/2006/10/16/NewscityNews/Judge.Sentences.Students.Killer-2398509.shtml
When a buddy and I went out for St. Patrick's, we were in a bank's locked ATM enclosure when a punk showed up outside the glass, asking for money. He said his girlfriend's in the hospital, do we have a car whose windows he could wash, the whole spiel. Yeah. I was about to give my friend my wallet, just in case, then go out and beat the crap out of the guy if he didn't leave. But then *I'd* be the one charged by the police.
Posted by: Perry Eidelbus at April 1, 2008 2:02 PMThe number of "kids" it takes to coerce a grown man to hand over his PIN number will vary with the particular grown man, but if 8 kids can't subdue him they'll try again later with 16, or 32... (Do you suppose they didn't first try with only 2, or 4 punks?)
I haven't been to NYC since 1996, or to Harlem ever; Britain is on and off of my travel list on a constant basis. I'll tell you one thing though, it will only be to visit - I'll never live in any of those places. Life imitates art.
Posted by: johngalt at April 6, 2008 10:28 AM | What do you think? [4]