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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not feel safe in London...and near London..?

95 replies

moumoute · 16/01/2017 22:43

Ok, see, I am scared now. I lived 9 years in London, moved abroad for 3 years. I would like to move back to the UK but I am scared! Being abroad I have started to look at the newspapers including the shitpapers so I see a LOT of crime, in London, near London and actually everywhere in Britain. Am I paranoid now? It seems wrong to move back and raise children in a village near London as I find crimes history everywhere....

OP posts:
nancy75 · 16/01/2017 22:47

Newspapers report bad stuff, printing that today 6million people didn't get mugged or murdered isn't really going to sell papers. There is crime everywhere in the world

PeachBellini123 · 16/01/2017 22:48

Er yes. I live in one of the most deprived boroughs in London. We plan to bring our baby up here. Never been a victim of crime. Yes there's crime but for us the positives outweigh the negatives - although it's horrendously expensieve!

The only time I've been a victim of crime was when our car was stolen in a sleepy village in the midlands.

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 22:50

Also, I live now in Norway (I'm not from there) and it seems the safest place on earth to the point. It might deform my point of view!

OP posts:
user1469914265 · 16/01/2017 22:51

Anders Brevik

Chippednailvarnishing · 16/01/2017 22:52

Better stay in the crime free country you are in now.

Or you could start considering that there are 8 million people in greater London, so what you perceive as higher level of crime isn't actually significant if looked at incidents per 100,000 people.

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 22:52

user1469914265 Yes I know! but apart from him?

OP posts:
Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 22:52

I'm a victim of the shitpapers.

OP posts:
Chippednailvarnishing · 16/01/2017 22:54

Yup.

WorraLiberty · 16/01/2017 22:56

You should probably stay where you are if it's going to cause you so much stress.

CockacidalManiac · 16/01/2017 22:59

If you raise kids in a village, they'll be necking cider in a bus shelter by the age of 15 out of sheer boredom.
I'd take my risks in a city.

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:02

Mmh CockacidalManiac you have a point! I meant a 'village'...a city corner less hectic than central London.

OP posts:
ShatnersWig · 16/01/2017 23:03

I visit London on occasion. I feel safer walking around London at 2am than I do my own town, which is only some 130,000 and considered very "naice"

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:03

WorraLiberty Where I am is very boring.

OP posts:
AutoFillContact65 · 16/01/2017 23:04

I've lived in Zone 2 for 20+ years. I have never been the victim of a violent crime and I can't say I have seen a noticeable increase in the last few years.

Great place to raise a family.

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:05

ShatnersWig Right. So I should just move back to London. In fact it's safer than let say Turnwell Bridge?

OP posts:
brasty · 16/01/2017 23:09

London does have higher levels of crime.But crime is falling in Britain and has been for a few years

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:10

Ok 8Millions people in London, at least one murder and one rape everyday. 5Millions in Norway, one murder every ...? Hard to say not often!

OP posts:
TheCuriousOwl · 16/01/2017 23:11

This week while out working (community based health job) in central London I can report that I have been a victim of and a witness to, no crimes.

I did have a nice chat to a couple of drunk guys with a MASSIVE bull terrier type dog in a lift in a notoriously dangerous estate, just as it was getting dark and I was off home, they were very concerned about my welfare and gave me lots of good advice about not being on the estate on my own once it got properly dark Grin. I love it that even the dubious characters look out for me, I think I've got that kind of face!

Stilitzvert · 16/01/2017 23:15

YANBU there's violence on every corner in London, you can't move for it. Seriously, you're being paranoid. Yes there's some violence but it's not widespread and i have never seen it

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:15

AutoFillContact65 where zone 2? :)
brasty it's the ratio probably
TheCuriousOwl Ok thank you ;)

OP posts:
user1471548375 · 16/01/2017 23:15

2011 - Norway had a 'murder rate' of 2.2 people per hundred thousand, London was 1.5 so arguably, if it's murder you're worried about London is a safer bet.

MirandaWest · 16/01/2017 23:16

Although I know it was a one off, when I think of Norway I think of the massacre that happened a few years ago.

Everywhere can have bad things happening.

AutoFillContact65 · 16/01/2017 23:17

Oh I forgot, one night I was at a bus stop with my DS and a man was throwing roast chicken at everyone at the bus stop. I phoned the police and while I was on the phone th local foot patrol walked up and one policeman put his arm around the chicken throwing bloke and walked him away from the bus stop. The police clearly knew and liked the chicken man. Took me another 5 minutes after they'd taken him away to finish the phone call!

MajesticWhine · 16/01/2017 23:17

I've lived in London for 20 years and I've not noticed any real difference lately. I had a couple of bikes nicked a few years ago. Exposure to crime depends very much on the specific area where you live and what you get up to, I suspect.