Footballers Spitting...

Adding my ten penneth:

It's the fear of crime or the perception of crime that's the real problem and that leads to stigmatisation of some areas.

For example, I went to South Africa last year (and am off there again this years). We drove through parts of Johannesburg and there are gangs of youths "hanging about" on most street corners there, especially at traffic light junctions. Having never experienced this before, we were initially intimidated, especially as they approached our car. It soon became apparent, however that the reason that they were there was to sell or give away newspapers, leaflets, fruit, nuts or other such produce as they were poor and this was how they could make some sort of living.

Of course there is crime in SA, just as there is in the US and the UK, however it is much exaggerated and sensationalised to sell newspapers like the Sun, the Daily Mail and the Mirror etc...

"Personally speaking, i have drawn my conclusions from where i have lived, Totton for one, a very average British town, obviously being my home town i can remember all the issues and assaults, several of which led to deaths."

Aha! THIS is the root of the problem Cinci. I don't think Totton is a very average British town so much as it is an absolute shitehole! I also think your safety concerns (kids hanging around, muggings, low level crime) are particularly prevalent somewhere like this, a pretty poor, run down town. But the vast majority of people in the UK live in cities, villages and average towns which suffer different levels and types of crime but less of that low level crime as a proportion.

Did you go to Totton College Cinci? I can't remember.

I remember seeing the sign to a very quaint English town that was apparently called "Loose Chippings". Next time I travelled that road, it had completely disappeared.

A mystery, which could be put down to gangs of ethnic teenagers, or Roger Johnson, (who, incidentally, I also blame for United's penalty shoot-out woes, last night).

There are more assaults in the UK than USA sinply because all Yanks know that the chap you're falling out with at the Diner or Bar while not having a gun on him has probably got one in his car.

In the UK we still think that the chap you fall out with in the Pub or Takeaway has just got his fists.

Personally I would find it far more violent to be shot by a military style assault rifle than punched in the chops by a yob, whatever the total crimes of violence league tables say.

Totton IS a shít hole

Yeah, sorry mate Did you go to the college?

Hell no, I was plucked from the obscurity of Totton after I left school.

Iwelumo's gone to Perth...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25865614

Is he opening the batting?

wolfgang,

I agree. it is only my opinion and I may be totally exaggerating...in fact, I can't even explain why I feel this way...but somehow the thought of a drunken slap vaguely bruising my shoulder just doesn't fill me with the same level of fear as being shot several times in the head by someone I just cut up at traffic lights.

again, it is just how I feel, but cinci's description earlier of cops cruising by every five minutes (presumably armed with tasers, pepper spray, pistols and shotguns/rifles) doesn't persuade me that a place is less violent than where I live...a town that needs no more policing than the occasional cop walking down the main road.

oh, and once again...the USA does not record most assaults or other low level violent crimes in its stats. whereas the UK does. THAT is the major reason for the figures appearing much lower than in England. I've seen lots of drunken fights amongst students and young ppl in America it is just that nothing happens afterwards.