to wonder what is happening to London!?

[AisforAria]

Anyone else worried about the sudden rise in acid attacks, moped thieves etc? It feels a bit like the rule of law is breaking down. All this simmering violence - London feels really alien and hostile these days.

shoes you are making the assumption that the people you saw were not British people.

You are also making the assumption that it only non British people who are the criminals.

You could always go to Australia if it's too African and third world ish around here

O rly?

Tearsunmyeyes Your pathetic, racist assumptions that this thread are discussing black people, is part of the problem in shutting down conversation. One poster made reference to a secondary school filled with BME in a "white" area.......

The men who assaulted my friend were white, with Eastern European accents.

Multiculturalism refers to all cultures and creeds. Not just people who are BME.

I didn't mention it in my post as it's irrelevant. The point is, people from all over the world live in London as the people who live here are, generally, incredibly welcoming and tolerant.

When this generosity of character is abused, I believe people have the right to feel affronted and afraid. No one is being "hysterical", but stating FACTS about the huge rise in "petty" crime which is becoming increasingly violent.

Only one poster. Posting in haste

Frankunderwoods - my point was trying to illustrate the lack of diversity & increased segregation compared to my childhood. I guess it didn't come across. My parents are immigrants as are the majority of my friends parents.

I think about a year ago people in Hampstead were insisting on meetings with police because of moped crimes. Small streets make it difficult to give chase there, and obviously there are many affluent residents.

The police are hamstrung because pursuing offenders is dangerous, and as others have noted they whip off their helmets so the police can't go after them. And I saw in the Evening Standard yesterday that one moped rider (who had just mugged somebody) fell off his scooter when being pursued and it is going to the Police Complaints Commission. Furthermore the fact that they can't publish the miscreants' names indicates they are all young. I guess that they are being used by gangs.

Gang members attacking each other - well, let them get on with it really. But targeting members of the public with acid does show that these criminals have absolutely no empathy for fellow members of the human race.

WTF? It's not GTA. Real life innocent bystanders get killed when people play cops and robbers on the streets. You might not care about that, but I'd rather not be mown down for a stolen moped.

It is not about the risk to bystanders.

Police can't get authorisation to chase once they remove their helmets. So, as soon as the police show up the passenger will whip off his helmet.

The rule is the risk of injury or death to the scumbag pieces of shit that are riding the mopeds. Which, quite frankly, I would not shed a tea if some of these criminals smashed their heads to smitherines.

CCTV? You really think there's is enough coverage through estates to track people fully covered from head to toe on stolen bikes with fake plates? Dream on.

The police need much stronger protection, and they have to be allowed to chase mopeds even if they have removed their helmets. The 'blame' for any injury to the moped driver/passengers lies squarely with themselves not with the police if they fail to stop.

You don't get away with the papers and the government purposely trying to divide the country scapegoat certain communities for years and enforce your ideological austerity programme without some sort of call out both economically and socially

Ah right, i see; so this excuses someone throwing acid in a paramedic's face. of course it does.
You stupid stupid woman

THE violent Hampstead robberies /muggings gained very 'sympathy' because people were like "well if you were a £100k watch you are asking for it" but it's a bit fuckimg gothem city to think like that and now the method has spread to just nicking iPhones and other mopeds people suddenly care because it could be you.

Generally, though, the last few years have been getting worse with regards to homelessness, and vulnerable people with mental health issues wandering about, due to various support networks having funding cut. I imagine it's true everywhere, but more noticeable here.

I think you're right. There has been a big increase in the number of rough sleepers in Brighton over the last few years. A lot of them have addiction or MH issues and the support services for these have been cut to the bone. In the affluent, middle class town where I live, we now have beggars and rough sleepers for the first time since I moved here 26 years ago.

Brighton has also suffered a significant rise in violent crime. I feel less safe in Brighton at night than I did in Brixton in the 1980s.

"Of course it's a media fad tears, chemical attacks and deliberate burns are nothing new in any big city."

Really? Am a bit flabbergasted by this.

Until recently violent crime had been falling in this country for about 20 or 30 years. But I think the recent rise in knife attacks is a real thing. In April, the Met said that "gun and knife crime rose 42% and 24% respectively [in the past year] and that recorded crime was up across virtually every category." (From a Guardian article: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/12/met-police-warns-of-sharp-rise-in-london-gun-and-knife-crime-budget-cuts)

I don't know how widespread acid attacks are yet, but it is worrying - it's very common in India and Pakistan, and I suppose once people are aware of it then it can spread quite easily.

Acid isn't difficult to get hold of, you don't have to come into physical contact with your victim and you can do horrible permanent damage in the space of a few seconds. If you're the kind of person who wants to carry out a violent crime and has no moral qualms, then I suppose it is an easy way of doing it.

Brighton's always been a bit rough. Read "Brighton Rock"?! And Mods and Rockers fights in the Sixties, those gloomy arches... actually I find it much less grimy than 20+ years ago.

I think there is a bit of "homeless tourism" now. I was reading that Totnes in Devon has been finding that people are moving there from other parts of the country. Also where I live has excellent homeless provision (really excellent, actually): they are not really homeless, as such, but have MH/addiction problems. Unfortunately this provision has had the effect of encouraging more addicts to move here and then sadly the tolerance deteriorates when there are a large number of people begging/sleeping rough (they don't need to) in the town.

But, regarding the moped/acid attackers - what bilge that these crimes are caused by austerity. These criminals are not stealing a loaf of bread, fgs! They are young men without a shred of decency. I suppose you have to trace this back to their home lives and the breakdown of supportive family structures. But it's got nothing to do with poverty. Look at the poverty in 1930s Britain. Were people going round mugging and throwing acid in people's faces?

I have lived and worked in London all my life and it has never felt this uncomfortable. Sure, I have lived through the various IRA campaigns and various other nasties but somehow there seemed to be more cohesion to the fabric to London life back then. Now it just feels like everyone for themselves and people seem more self absorbed. Everyone seems to have become obsessed with materialism, house prices and me me me. I feel like the attacks are just a symptom of all this disparateness.

I was born and bred there, very centrally, and loved it for a time. Each time I go back though it feels more disenfranchised and hostile. it's a shame .

I think austerity plays a part, not because people are stealing because they are poor, but because all the services that help society knit together are being cut to the bone.

CAMHS and education support both play a role in helping kids to cope, when they can't provide that help, kids are more likely to go feral. Youth offending teams can no longer provide the intensive support that diverts young people from criminality before it gets out of control. And cuts to police budgets mean fewer feet on the beat so criminals are more likely to get away with it.

I live in London. I feel safe. Things happen in big cities. I wouldn't say it's any higher than previously.
I live in west London and I work centrally so maybe I just it isn't in my area.

But, regarding the moped/acid attackers - what bilge that these crimes are caused by austerity. These criminals are not stealing a loaf of bread, fgs! They are young men without a shred of decency

I don't know about anyone else but I wasn't suggesting a direct "they're just robbing for food, poor things" kind of connection @LadyinCement . I was talking about the unsettled atmosphere and the undisputable population CHURN that has been caused by a variety of factors like the housing crisis, the polarisation of London society by income and austerity. Goodness knows I wouldn't make excuses for machete wielding muggers.

The point is, when too many of the population are on the move and too many residents are struggling, the mechanisms of social ties and known community break down and those are the positive forces that INHIBIT deviant and criminal behaviour.

@Peabrain14 's description of London really closely mirrors my own, particularly of old school friends all having left (and family too) and the road of £3m houses whose inhabitants don't use the secondary school on their road. (That could almost be the same road I often gawp at now).

To me London is a broken machine now. It's not functioning as a proper city.

Aria - that's a good point. That's a reason I hate social media it encourages the self absorption.

Serfterf - is it near a common?

I think I am more worried than before as I have 2 sons & I hate the idea that something could happen to them for looking at someone the wrong way.

Obviously the moped and acid crimes are abhorrent but think the posters above have tapped into something - we're all too self obsessed in London simply because we're all too pushed. You can now be working in the City and slogging your guts but have no chance of buying a house in most zones, or a flat close to green space/good schools, and costs of childcare basically take your whole salary...so what's the incentive? And in public sphere, as a doctor or nurse or teacher, how can you break even in this city? You're told to accept cuts and be honourable for what?

So many areas don't have families simply because they can't survive there, so you have lots of people only living in an area short term and they're generally single/young couples etc but not able to put down roots. There's no fabric to the society, there's barely any neighbourhoods.

And don't get me started on the affluent areas... ok after Grenfell JC shouldn't have said oh put the victims in random houses in the west end. But..you go to any area west of Trafalgar Square until zone 2, and there are barely any people living there. Hundreds of acres of London are being kept empty and owned by wealthy nom-doms, and you can say "well they spend money when they're here"...only for a few months of the year at best and only in select shops/restaurants that are big business anyway (tax dodging), not corner shops or any start ups. You end up with places like Mayfair which is essentially dead and has been for 15 years now. No one lives there. And any council tax is a tiny proportion to what these people actually have, they're not paying their way to maintain the very areas that give their properties any value.

And then you have the rest of us subsisting off public resources that are being cut back, not expanded to help with pop growth. If you feel stressed it's because we are in a very real way being stressed, and it's been getting worse every single year, and then we're forced to make the call of do you even bother to try and throw all your money at this life or do you risk a move away from town? And there's no easy answer

Also agree it's no coincidence an Asian family were targeted in that acid attack, but people are uncomfortable to be told that a white man can be a terrorist

So many posters are in denial. A young man was murdered for his watch and phone in Greenwich in the early hours of Saturday morning. His watch was removed whilst he was dying.

Yes it is @Peabrain14 , could be the same one then (although I suppose there are lots of similar examples).

I don't see the relevance of Mayfair being empty of residents and affluent to the rise in violent crime and acid attacks. London has always had rich and poor but never acid attacks and violence on this scale. It has never been possible for normal working people to live in Westminster, Mayfair or Chelsea. There was limited social housing and maybe some Peabody or Guinness Trust Buildings.

Martin Lewis having his phone ripped out of his hand has brought the whole scooter boy bandit right into the public eye.
The sickos with the acid are another thing altogether.