Barlow's brief

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Liberal thought goes askance

Vic Barlow
13/ 9/2006

IT'S LONG been the established liberal view that fear of crime generated by the media is to blame for public insecurity. Not lamentable policing, or inconsequential sentencing. Not the proliferation of drugs, cheap alcohol or tolerance of yob culture.

According to London's chief of police we are now so crime free we can all leave our doors unlocked and go on holiday.

When statistics say otherwise (crimes of violence up 22 per cent) they are immediately discredited as 'changes in the method of recording'. According to liberal politicians and apologist police chiefs even a push in the back is now recorded as a violent assault.

Did you know that? If you've ever tried to call out the police after being attacked you probably won't.

So, as far as established liberal thinking goes, all that's needed is to silence the media and everyone will live happily ever after.

Unfortunately there is one crime that's not quite so easy to deny or discredit and that's murder. A person is either dead or not dead, slain or not slain, and forensic evidence is rarely inconclusive.

So what has happened during this period of peace and tranquillity? Well, according to a Home Office Statistical Bulletin (02/06) during the last nine years the murder rate has risen from 716 per annum to 954, an increase of 26pc.

While police chiefs and politicians continue to blame the media for public insecurity ('perception' is the word they use) the only statistic they can't deny tells quite a different story.

  • THE views expressed on this page are those of Vic Barlow and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Express.

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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   Where on Earth has Vic Barlow got his figures from in this piece? The more I look at the Home Office bulletin to which he refers, the less I find anything that comes anywhere close to what he's saying; and if you read the later Home Office stats there's even reference to people being fooled by the tabloids into quite wrongly interpreting their figures.

Chapter and verse, please; and if these aren't provided, we can only assume that Vic himself is exactly one of those media people who are leading us astray.
Peter Fowler, Macclesfield
17/09/2006 at 16:36
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