Well Darlings,

The Crime Statistics for 2006-07 in England and Wales have been published. Although vandalism is up 10% and violent crime up 5%, with a 3% increase overall when all crimes are taken into account according to the British Crime Survey figures - the accepted most reliable source - there seems to be some rejoicing that crime may have stabilised. This is because when the BCS figures are averaged out with the police crime figures - accepted as not being the best to use - it does indeed look that way as they cancel each other out. But should we be averaging out the best information we have with that which is not so reliable just in order to make things look better?

There are many crimes committed today that the public no longer bother reporting to the police. A lot of cases of burglary, theft and criminal damage don't get reported simply because it is known the police are under too much pressure to be able to investigate them thoroughly and will often just issue a crime number for the insurers. As these crimes are more prevalent in the deprived areas, where fewer people can afford to be insured against them, the victims will often feel safer to not be seen making a fuss and so they do not report them. However, although these crimes may not have been reported, it still needs to be accepted that they have occurred for they will affect the public's perception of crime, and go a long way towards explaining how that differs from the expectations based on the reported crime figures.

Statistics can be played around with to show pretty much what you want them to show, whereas the public's perception is not susceptible to such treatment. It is mostly based on front-line experiences - on personal knowledge - and contrary to what the politicians would have you believe, the public do not become unjustly alarmed.

A statistic which tells us violent crime has risen by 5% may not look good to most people - but it is not exactly frightening. However when you tell them that there were more than 2.47 million violent incidents recorded by the BCS in 2006/07 (and these are only the recorded ones!) their acceptance of that percentage may change rapidly. Simple arithmetic will then suggest to them there is something like a 1 in 24 chance that they could become a victim, and if we take out of the equation all those whose lifestyle makes their chances of becoming a victim so remote as to not be worth considering, it is probably more like a 1 in 20 chance or even less - and with this type of crime rising those odds are shortening all the time. It is not good news.

Many people will know far more than 20 other people, and so every year there will be a hell of lot of people who will have personal knowledge of at least one such crime. Some will know of a whole lot more. Public perception doesn't count for nothing - it may not produce accurate figures, but it is a good yardstick by which to measure the improvement or decline each year. Just as justice should be seen to be done, crime-fighting should feel to be working. That said, I haven't noticed any street parties yet!

The increase in vandalism doesn't surprise me. Again, it is an often not reported crime, and yet despite that it has still officially increased by an enormous amount. The true extent of vandalism must be an unknown but horrific quantity. Even the Royal Mews here in Blackpool has succumbed to it. Since a family from Hell moved into the area no window is safe, and as proof the Royal John now sports a cracked one. Kids, probably only around seven and eight years old, hurl missiles at house windows, parked cars, or whatever takes their fancy, and should you confront them they simply stand their ground and laugh in your face, saying: "What yer gonna do about it?"

Faced with these brats gloating, you begin to feel impotent for you realise there is absolutely nothing at all you can do about it. We have allowed the do-gooders and the politically correct to change the way we live so much that to even shout at the little terrors could have you in trouble. So, when their parents - who are rarely at home! - aren't interested in what their children get up to, and will accept no responsibility for the damage they cause, you are at a complete loss as to what to do. Inform the police? It might sound good, but it is totally out of the question. The police do not have the resources to set up surveillance and catch every vandal, there are far too many of them out there, and to just involve the police could see your house completely trashed and your life made a living hell. That is why within just a couple of hundred yards of the royal abode eight "For Sale" signs have recently been erected outside of properties, although at any one time you may only see half that amount because the little hooligans frequently uproot them and use them as missiles.

Vandalism is a far more serious crime than many might at first imagine. Areas that are vandalised soon go downhill. Nothing will knock the bottom out of the local property market faster than a street of boarded-up broken windows. Faced with this, those once proud of their properties, and who would strive to keep them looking respectable, give up caring. Rather than suffer the vandalism and the downward spiral they move away, perhaps even suffering a loss on their investment, and before you know it all the dregs of society, the drug pushers and pimps, move in and take over the area.

With all the CCTV we have around today, in our town centres there is always a hope of catching the vandals - but in residential areas where there are no cameras there is no hope and no answer to it. Vandalism has become something we have to suffer, and is yet one more dreadful result of those misguided people who would "reason" with children rather than instil some discipline in them. Such a doctrine may work occasionally in the leafy suburbs of Surrey, but it sure doesn't work everywhere!

I would never support any policy that forced parents into correctly disciplining their children, within reason people should have the freedom to choose exactly how they wish to bring up their own offspring, however because of a misguided few, everybody has been forced into NOT correctly disciplining them the way that Nature intended, and we only have to look around our country today to see the result! We have the highest crime figures; the highest number of unwanted teenage pregnancies; the highest number of cases of sexual disease; the highest number of binge-drinkers; and the most trouble on the streets in Europe. So far this year - and it is still only July as I write this - in London alone a staggering seventeen teenagers have already been killed with either guns or knives, and similar deaths are occurring in many other towns and cities throughout the country.

I for one am not rejoicing at the crime figures "stabilising" at this level. We must stop talking about it, and congratulating ourselves, and REALLY get tough on crime. Tough on crime means being REALLY tough on the parents and means them in turn being tough on their children. Until children learn to respect both property and people, every generation will grow up that much worse than the last. We have seen it happen; the evidence is there - indisputable clear evidence. Tomorrow's criminals are today's children - let's change the programming!

Because of a few people who believe their farts don't stink and who will not accept that, although they may be civilised, they still basically belong to the animal kingdom and so need to abide by Nature's way of rearing their young, a way that has suffered the proof of all-time, we have descended to this level today where decent law-abiding people now live in fear of crime. Criminals are in the minority at the moment - but for how long? If we don't change something soon, can you visualise life in another fifty years?

We don't train our children correctly, and we don't teach them anything about the real world. I am at this moment listening to a programme on the television behind me where the students in their last year at one of our better schools think money borrowed on a credit card doesn't have to be paid back. At sixteen they do not know the first thing about money. I am astounded! Gobsmacked! Education? Education? Education? I guess when some of these kids discover it has to be paid back they'll have to resort to crime to do it!

A legacy of those who have inflicted all this upon us with their misguided ways are the horrendous actions being performed, and often recorded on mobile phones, by youngsters for whom even murder has now become fashionable. Nothing, not even life itself, has any value whatsoever to an ever-growing number of youngsters today - and, as several court cases have shown, they don't all come from bad or deprived homes.

It is not corporal punishment that promotes crime and kills people; it is people, often youngsters, through the complete lack of it!

What yer gonna do about it, Mr Brown?

"The Bitch!" 27/07/07.

About the Author

"The Bitch!", a weekly UK News Review column, is hosted by the author and columnist Michael Knell. These articles appear on the Blackpool Gay Directory website, but are not specifically gay in content. More information on the author: http://www.michaelknell.com and on the directory: http://www.astabgay.com.