To feel depressed about street crime increasing?

[Belindabobtail]

In many areas it seems to be, especially since the pandemic. It has even crept into the rather quiet area where I live, albeit much rarer and in the town centre.

I grew up in Lancashire, and still have family/friends there and around Greater Manchester. I'm obviously saddened by the death of a 16 year old girl in Warrington this Saturday (knife attack) and there are many that don't reach the national press. It brought to mind how much of this I'm hearing of late, how a few people I know have even witnessed knife crime or threats in their town centres in the afternoon - and I mean places where you hardly ever heard of that kind of stuff a few years ago.

I know there are complex issues surrounding the rise in knife crime, which I won't get into here, but on a recent visit to see friends I witnessed someone being attacked in broad daylight in a busy town centre, which shook me up a bit. This is reported to be quite common in a few places I used to know, that never used to have such issues.

I usually might think it seems to be increasing because it is reported more frequently, but not so sure. It is something I did used to associate with large cities or very troubled spots, but apparently not now. Is anyone else thinking this? To be honest I would love to hear I am mistaken.

There are certain places now that when I visit, the atmosphere is bizarrely different, sort of charged with a weird violence, with much more trouble on the streets and in stores. This includes seeing off road bikes being driven through a shopping arcade, kids smashing public property, a ton of addiction issues very visible and a massive amount of litter, glass and smashed phoneboxes, etc.
There is definitely a sense that you might walk past or experience something kicking off and unwittingly get stuck in it.
I can only stress that this feels somewhat sudden, that in the few places I am thinking of it definitely wasn't like that a few years back.

Does anyone know if this is a thing, an actual increase in smaller towns, or could it just be the areas I am hearing about? And if it is increasing, what do you think is the reason? Can anything help?

Totally agree that a slash of finding to help in the early and childhood/youth years has contributed massively to this alongside lack of police and total failure to deal with organised crime.

What positives has the Conservative government achieved? It will take years for another government to sort out this mess.

There are far fewer than before 2010. The Tory government drastically cut police budgets and also importantly council budgets - we had a lot of security patrols paid for by the council plus investment in things that help to detect and prevent crime.

Cuts that lead to crime problems include:
-Youth services cuts
-Council cuts
-Drug/alcohol services cuts
-Social Services cuts
-Police cuts
-Security cuts
-Mental health cuts
-Health cuts
-Benefit cuts
-Probation cuts
-Justice/courts cuts

The Tories have defunded crime prevention/detection/prosecution consistently for 13 years.

I’m a nurse and the amount of ‘entitled’ behaviour I have to put up with is staggering.
Years ago there was some respect for the emergency services, not now.

Agree emotional maturity plays a big part in it.

There's so much wrong with society that it's hard to know where to begin. I do feel that when politicians and law makers feel it's okay to break laws or lie or insert shitty behaviour here and they face no consequence, it sets a precedent. If they dont care, why should the average joe? The growing wealth gap is also an issue.

Its only when society truly pulls together that people maybe have a chance of learning appropriate behaviour and boundaries. Plus people need something to aspire to. A decimation of many industries over the years have left a void.

I was thinking the same thing this morning. There was a lot of police activity up and down my street yesterday and yet another young person murdered (stabbed).

So so many deep cuts. It wouldnt be so bad if they money they saved from slashing everything actually got rid of the debt that we had in 2008. But that debt has almost tripled. So really, what benefit was it all for?

Just appalling. So sad.

Spare the rod...

This. When the Government decides that it is not worth investing in the youth of the future. Who on earth thought that it was a good idea to take away provisions from the most vulnerable people in Society. We reap what the Government sows.

I used to think it was the fact that the Internet just makes it easier to report things, but I agree, it’s absolutely worse than it was even a year ago.

The amount of stabbings every day is shocking. It’s not like it’s even gang violence anymore. You just have to look at someone the wrong way, or just be going about minding your own business. What about that poor boy who was beaten up by a couple of men because he’d asked a girl to stop filming him at the park.

I think it’s become such a huge problem, I don’t know how it’s going to end. I do think some parents need to take more responsibility for their kids. The recent thread on here about the teens trashing someone’s house at a party just goes to show many parents don’t care what their children are up to. Apparently it should have been expected if you leave 40 teenagers unsupervised. Well, sure, it was naive and foolish to leave them, but they still shouldn’t bloody do it and get away with it!

We have lost all respect for each other. While I don’t think you should necessarily respect someone just because they’re older, there is something in this. Kids nowadays get away with all sorts. Teachers and police, in particular, need to be backed by the public more.

I agree with those who mention the entitlement factor. There is definitely a sense that nothing is shameful. It is like an inversion of manners, or a race to the bottom. I think the public are largely at each others throats, you can even see this in the fighting on MN, it is like as a culture we do not have any trust left and are perpetually on the defensive.
I do think it's cultural, an unpleasant shift, and with that god knows where policy will follow. We don't have a dictatorship, people wanted and voted for this:(
People will also cut off their nose to spite their face, not wanting anyone else to benefit from the contributions pot. A pot that they were happy to access when it offered them free education and housing, and a good chance of building a future.
And then there's the rags. People insist they don't like them but every second link online is the DM, as if it actually circulates 'news'.
It's a bit odd..

Yep, the billionaires who run the papers and tell us who to hate next. Its divide and conquer. I honestly believe we are living in a weird time in history. We will see more AI come into play in the next decade plus space exploration. I can only imagine how that will feed into the mentality of those who feel they've been left behind by society.

Social media has made us more divisive than ever too. Plus all these entitled influencers and youtubers and fame hungry twats who perpetuate bullshit. No one has a purpose.

I noticed a DM headline from last week ( think it was last week) whilst trawling another website - "White nurse sacked by NHS for saying being white isn't racist" (or something of that ilk).

Whatever the hell point there was in printing a headline like that, it can only be the get the masses frothing. It can only amplify hate, anger and blood pressure. It is clear that most tabloids only exist to create fury.
But people still consume it

The DM once ran a front page headline that simply said "Less jobs for white man". This was about 2005ish. Disgusting paper. Look at the billionaires who own the media. They have a vested interest in whipping up a storm.

All the reasons stated plus parenting.

I live in a lovely area but the local comp is a mess, wishy washy HT that lets the kids run feral.

Yesterday I was in Manchester CC & I just didn’t feel safe.

I live in Dublin and things are somewhat similar here too. I say somewhat because we don't seem to have the same level of gun violence as the UK yet! I have worked in the same disadvantaged area for nearly 20 years as a community worker and I think those that say cuts in funding and resources is accurate. We hit a dreadful recession in 2007 as did the rest of the world, funding was cut everywhere our project had to cut right back and make people redundant as did many others, community and youth projects were easy targets and experienced massive cuts. Roll on 10/15 years are so and the impact of those cuts in disadvantaged communities is coming back to bite them. Our economy is doing relatively well now high employment etc. but social problems are on the rise because support was not there for many of these young people when they were growing up. I also think covid contributed. Our city centre was effectively shut down, became a ghost town, no tourists, no office works etc. and disaffected young people (who lets be honest were never going to participate in home schooling), drug users/ dealers etc took over the streets relatively unchecked and it is hard to wind back the clock.

gun violence apologues this should have read knife crime!

Well we have a government who’s not even hiding the fact they only interested in helping their donors and a dwindling group of elderly home owners. Everything for the young (Sure Start, eduction, youth services etc) has been cut to the bone and people of working age are being treated like a cash machine which is why even high earners on PAYE are starting to struggle.

When the mobile workers leave the country, the tax base will shrink further and the government will cut harder to ensure their supporters don’t lose out. Can’t see anything getting any better as this government only knows how to break things, not build them. You’re better off encouraging your kids to emigrate.

My dad encouraged me to emigrate. I stayed in my home town and watched the decline. Wish I'd have bloody listened before having kids myself.

I'm encouraging DD to emigrate, I'm very thankful that she is very keen to do so.

Social media, narcissism, celebrity culture… cakes and circus. Brings to mind the end of civilisation.

Theres always perceived threats everywhere, it makes people feel hostile and aggressive. That before Brexit, Covid, Putins invasion and the CoL crisis. Those things havent helped though.

There's definitely a 'desensitisation' to other people's feelings. Yet the media do keep whipping up a storm claiming it's all gone too woke. In one discussion the guys commenting said they disgusted by how the police were giving so much time and attention to sexual assaults, that women never used to mind being molested in the workplace back in the good old 80's.

You couldn't make this shit up.
Whilst I truly agree with everyone regarding the tories and cuts, this ugly vibe surrounding women's safety has deeper roots..

Pretty sure parents of these feral kids are responsible for how they've turned out, but let's blame the government.

My kids grew up under the same tory government, but don't run around stabbing people or breaking the law.

Could we not include brexit or covid too....