To be genuinely scared of the world we live in

[pinklite]

Apologies if there has already been a similar thread today but just wanted to air my feelings.

Today's attack in Southport is just horrific and keeps playing on my mind. A very similar incident occurred in my home town a few years ago on a park where a little girl was stabbed and killed.

I'm genuinely scared for my two young sons to grow up in this world where there are complete maniacs who want to harm young children. I'm a naturally anxious person anyway and have been since childhood, so anytime we go anywhere I'm on high alert of the people around us and our surroundings.

I know we can't live in fear, but how can we not when things like this seem to be a regular occurrence?

I sympathise with you OP, I really do, but this is where you need to look at facts and statistics. I ruined the whole of my childrens' newborn stage by believing that they would die from cot death. It happens to a small number, and we're all human and so can all feel some degree of their pain, but it's statistically so unlikely. You wouldn't get in a car or cross the road if you didn't take into account statistics.

I think the most worrying thing is there seems to be a huge lack of respect for other people at the moment: you see it in day to day life, people getting cross with people in the traffic, people having no patience in queues / with shop staff etc, even the recent incident with the police man stamping on the man’s head - the footage before that showed these lads just laying into the police, no respect for authority. I find that really worrying as we’re moving towards a society where it really is every man for themselves- in more ways than one: violence against women in particular is dreadful. I think the terrible events of today are an amalgamation of all of that.

And they were right. As were the millions of families it didn’t happen to.

It was very unlikely. Just as it’s very unlikely you’ll win the lottery, but most weeks someone does. That someone wins the lottery doesn’t mean they were likely to win. They weren’t. And neither are you. In the same way, the children this happened to were very unfortunate - it wasn’t likely to happen to them and it isn’t likely to happen to you.

Wouldn’t this random crime fall under untreated mental health condition? where I live most totally random murders are committed by people experiencing psychotic episodes. The public are successfully challenging current treatments which don’t include facility care.

We live in one of the safest countries on earth. If you want to make it safer, worry about the unsafe countries in this world.

I'm guessing you're from Bolton OP. I'm not far away and I remember what you're referring to. I'm scared too.

I agree.
I grew up during the Cold War. People were scared of nuclear war, which was a very real threat, not a remote possibility. We had some very close calls.

There was the IRA bombing campaign. I lived in London when there were several bombings. I heard two of them from my home.

Lockerbie. Dunblane. Peter Sutcliffe. Fred West. The Moors murders.

It's always been happening. Because of the Internet and social media, we hear about more and they're discussed more.

Plop yourself into any point in history and it's shit.
11th century Vikings
12th century civil war
13th century plague
14th century 100 years war
15th century war of the roses
16th century sweating sickness plus added risk if you're married to HVIII
17th century civil war
18th fairly quiet actually
19th century children up chimneys, down mines etc
If your land owner decides he's raising an army you've no option but to fight.
Add in the risk of: small pox, dyptheria, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, measles and ever present plague. Never mind 1 in 6 women dying in child birth.
I think we're ok.

Well a hundred years ago if your DC died and you could afford to pay for the burial you kept the dead rotten body in your house till you could.

This would generally affect deprived families who often lived in one room. Abd who often sublet space in their room

The dead child would be in the bed during the day then moved to the table at night

People sold their DC or killed them if they couldn't afford to feed them

YANBU. I'm also fearful.
Southport is only a few miles the road from me and I have a 6 year old daughter, I could easily have sent her to a summer dance club like that.
It makes your blood run cold.
Awful.

I’m not buying todays is a psychotic attack. I have had psychosis & I have been sectioned for psychosis.

This person got a taxi, got out the taxi, went into a pregnancy centre, up a flight of stairs and then committed this attack on 6-11 year old girls. What is making you think that is psychosis as first assumption.

Absolutely horrifying. I haven't been there since before that happened and I won't, I also know many others who feel the same 💔

I only feel like this when I fill my head with news every day. We’re not supposed to know so much. These things are in the news because they are so extreme. The media earns a lot of money showing us these things.

@Inlaw people of sound mind don’t act this way?

I feel utterly sick about it all.
My sister and some other family members live in Southport so when I heard there were stabbings, I called to make sure they were ok. When they told me it had been children that were attacked, I assumed they must've read a false article or seen some bs on TikTok because I couldn't understand why anyone would stab children.
When it was confirmed to be children all over the news, I just felt sick.

Those poor poor kids. I can't even comprehend what they've been through today.

This world try the U.K. this is not happening in many other places. It is disgraceful that we have this number of knives attacks daily.

Well I will agree with you there but not ‘everyone of not sound mind’ is psychotic!

My daughter did a very similar class two weeks ago at the start of the Scottish holidays up here, in a church hall in a quiet residential area.
It feels far too similar.
I run a kids fitness club and we often have the doors open to let air in - especially in the summer. I'm now thinking we maybe can't do that now.

This was a terrible crime and my heart aches for the families involved. However, if you live in the UK this is probably one of the safest times in history for you and your children OP.

I know that’s small comfort right now as there are families this evening who will never see their children again and I can’t even begin to imagine what that feels like. I pray for them.

I mentioned on another thread about this (the one that got zapped) that a reduction in the homicide rate does not necessarily mean that society has become less violent, it may only mean that improvements in public knowledge, infrastructure and medical treatment mean that fewer victims of violence die from their injuries.

Nowadays people may have done first aid courses or learned what to do in a medical emergency from watching television; people have mobile phones to call emergency services and to be instructed on how to treat the victim; we have ambulances full of modern medical equipment, motorcycle paramedics, air ambulances; we have modern medicines and surgical treatments. Even things such as street-lighting and modern road surfaces make a difference.

Were people more violent 50 or 500 years ago or are we just more likely to survive injuries today? Can we congratulate ourselves on being better people or do we just have better medical treatment? How many of the people who survived today's incident would have survived in the past?

1 in 5 murderers are psychotic or delusional, with 33% of murderers having schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Quick google/wiki info on murderers who kill randomly.,
Seems to me ordinary people have good cause to petition for better mental health care and treatment.

It’s a normal response OP, especially if you have some personal experience. The whole country is horrified.

I really recommend you stay off your phone and then news for a few days. Try not to think too much about it. xxx

I agree with this sentiment, there has been a real and palpable shift towards people just being more aggressive, less tolerant, less kind. People looking for trouble, looking for arguments.

I pulled into a confusingly marked disabled bay yesterday at the same time as a delivery driver (it was also marked as a loading bay). Before we’d even exchanged glances, he was shouting at me aggressively, gesticulating wildly and threatening me. Then accused me of not being disabled and demanded to see the badge (I was driving my disabled father in his car, with a badge, who he hadn’t clocked). It was demeaning and got very heated when I actually bit back at him. All in front of two cafes full of people. It left me very shaken and further stressed out in an already stressful situation.

Absolutely unnecessary and completely avoidable situation.

There has been stabbings with machetes, rapes and all sorts here recently. It is terrifying.

A lot of Mumsnet don't get it because they don't and haven't lived in an area like Bolton.

I understand you OP. I am terrified for my daughter's, men seem to grow more and more hateful of women and girls daily.

And that’s a much better way to talk about psychosis in the context of murderers thank you.

Im not saying it doesn’t happen. It absolutely does. If this guy had picked random people on a street then yeah I might be thinking potential psychotic. But this guy was way too focused. 99% of psychotics would have got distracted and murdered someone else by that point.