Is London safe, or for that matter, is Britain safe? Murders, rapes and violent break-ins have become alarmingly frequent. Not a week passes without an incident, which is blood curdling, gory and most tragic. The worst and most worrying fact is that such crimes are becoming increasingly brutal and bloody. No area is safe. Age, too is no bar for rape. It doesn't matter either what time of day it is for crime to occur.
In the last fortnight a six-week old baby girl was raped, another six-year old girl was abducted from her home while she was having bath. She was also brutally and repeatedly assaulted. Disoriented and traumatised, she was spotted by a family wandering naked and crying on a street. They picked her up, dressed her and then took her to her distraught parents. About a month ago, burglars reportedly raped an old pensioner of nearly 90. As I said age is no bar nor does it matter where a victim lived.
A 31-year-old Cambridge-educated barrister, who was to get married shortly was mugged and then stabbed frenziedly to death this week. He had come out of a Tube station and called his fiancée on his mobile that he would be with her in minutes. But he never reached home. Two teenagers attacked him when he was just a few meters from his house.
He gave everything he had; yet the two muggers started stabbing him. Neighbours heard his cry " I have given everything I had, what more do you want". But the two muggers went on stabbing him until he fell to the ground, dead.
Not long ago, another very successful financier was stabbed to death in front of his wife and a young daughter by two intruders at his residence in a hitherto known safe and affluent area. I would repeat it does not matter where someone lives. Muggers, burglars, rapists and killers seem to lurk everywhere. An incident on the Strand, one of the most busy and posh streets in London, in broad daylight at a crowded bus station is illustrative of how unsafe London has become.
A young man got down from a bus but before he could move further, three young boys started punching him. A man standing there tried to intervene but was also threatened. A woman asked the bus driver to call the police on his radio but he told her it was none of his business. She then called the police on her mobile, but was made to give details for almost 15 minutes. By that time attackers would have melted away. Possibly police too has got used and immune to frequent violence.
{{/usCountry}}A young man got down from a bus but before he could move further, three young boys started punching him. A man standing there tried to intervene but was also threatened. A woman asked the bus driver to call the police on his radio but he told her it was none of his business. She then called the police on her mobile, but was made to give details for almost 15 minutes. By that time attackers would have melted away. Possibly police too has got used and immune to frequent violence.
{{/usCountry}}The stepfather of the slain barrister put it quite succinctly when he said the leniency is causing the loss of so many innocent lives.