A Christian Eye on Politics
From the BBC News website on just one afternoon (July, 26th 2007), come two reports:
"A former British heavyweight boxer who was shot when he asked customers at a club to stop smoking has been declared brain dead, his solicitor has said.
Scott Ewing said James Oyebola's life support machine will be switched off by doctors on Friday.
Oyebola, 47, was shot in the head and leg in a courtyard at the back of Chateau 6 in Fulham Road, south-west London, in the early hours of Monday.
His attackers opened fire as they left the club and fled on foot."
And this report:
"A 16-year-old boy has been shot dead after being chased by youths on bicycles, police have said.
Officers were called to reports of shots being heard on the Stockwell Gardens Estate in Stockwell, south London, just after midnight.
The teenager was found outside Cassell House suffering from gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Met's Operation Trident team, which investigates gun crime in London's black community, is investigating.
Det Insp Geoff Whitehouse said: "Initial reports suggest that the victim was running away from a number of youths on bicycles prior to being shot."
Recently a police report warned of British cities becoming 'no-go
areas' after dark because of the actions of groups of intimidating
youths.
For the last few years violent crime, especially involving the use of guns
and knives, has been surging out of control in Britain's largest cities,
especially in London and Manchester. Yet at this very time the British
government has been on a sort of anti-crime 'charm offensive'
insisting that British crime rates are actually falling! It is now learned
that the British government can make this claim purely because of changes
(which they themselves have instituted), in the way that crime figures are
calculated!
Opinion polls have shown that the average Briton feels less
safe from violent crime than ever - especially in the large cities, but both
the more liberal areas of the media and the government insist that the
general British public are completely mistaken; Apparently (we are being
told), its just an impression due to keener reporting of crime and
due to television programmes such as Crimewatch. Yet, when pressed,
authorities admit that violent crime - especially involving the use of knives
or guns is indeed on the increase - but "only in certain areas."
Various forms of crime (mainly the more petty forms of crime), have indeed
fallen and - in order to give the impression that original government
promises to greatly reduce crime have been successful - the true crime
situation is being manipulated in an entirely disingenuous manner.
But, when people say that they are more concerned about crime than ever, it
is violent crimes against the individual that those people are
thinking of! They are not thinking of shoplifting or other more minor
offences. It is understood that new Premier Gordon Brown now wants a new
drive to 'educate the public' about how little crime there really is
in the UK. To those many Britons who live in or near to one of the large
cities who can no longer take their families into the town centres after dark, such a 'heads in the sand' approach will seem truly incredible. The
truth is that the UK, in the recent past, has been - bearing in mind the size
of its population - amazingly crime-free compared to many countries. The
populace now want a return to those days.
Credit card fraud and identity theft have also gone through the roof in
the last few years. Staggeringly, victims of this form of fraud are now being
told to report it to their banks - but not to the police!! A
'This is London' report of 30.03.07 states this:
"Hundreds of thousands of people who fall victim to credit or debit
card fraud have been told to no longer bother reporting it the police. From
Sunday a change in the law, which has been approved by the Home Office, means
victims should go to their bank rather than the police station. The move has
been condemned as "astounding" by security experts who suggest it amounts to
the privatisation of the justice system. They say it appears to be an attempt
by the Government, the police and the banks to push the crime, which costs
the nation £428 million a year, under the carpet."
Read the full report here.
Civitas, the Institute for the Study of Civil Society
has been keeping a close watch on "official" British crime figures. In
consideration of the things which the 2004-2005 official Crime
Survey figures for England and Wales do not even include, Civitas
states,
"...when the Government claims that the BCS provides the most reliable
picture of crime, it is missing out 492,882 offences against children under
16. It is also missing out offences against shops, offices and manufacturers.
How many crimes against these victims are excluded?"
In its assessment of the Best Estimate of Crimes Against Commercial
Victims (mostly vandalism and vehicle crime), which are excluded from
the BCS (official figures), Civitas amazingly concludes that
2,739,655 crimes (in these areas alone), do not appear in official England
and Wales crime figures for 2004-5. You can read this full report for
yourself here. Does
this not amount to a most staggeringly cynical manipulation of the true crime
picture?
The British people surely have a right to have the true crime situation of their country
accurately reported, completely free of all spin, imaginative interpretation and
cynical manipulation! It should also be noted that the Conservative Party seem amazingly slow to go on the attack against this new government strategy, but we should perhaps bear in mind that new Conservative leader David Cameron is a self-confessed 'liberal' who has attacked traditional right-wing conservative values.
The Christian Hawk, July 26th, 2007.