Luton Suffers Nine Shootings In Four Month Crime Wave.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2324949/Armed-officers-patrol-streets-LUTON-stop-dangerous-shoot-outs-feuding-gangs.html

/// Bedfordshire Police have also invoked Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, allowing them to stop and search without suspicion. ///

Will others now agree with me that our country is becoming much more increasingly dangerous, than it once was?

Because this kind of thing 'NEVER' happened in my day.

[jim360]

It's not the first time armed officers have been needed in town. I remember in the wake of 7/7 armed guards in bus stations -- presumably it wasn't just my local bus station, but nationally. So in that respect, in the fact that bus stations and train stations aren't usually under armed guard, things have got better in the last few years.

Things may be worse in Luton recently -- I can hardly assess that having never lived there -- but again, to pick one incident and project over the whole country isn't sound logic.

In some ways, things are worse than they are in your day. In others, they are better.

Nice new avatar, by the way.

[LazyGun]

@Trigger I am a novice when it comes to guns- if it not loaded with live rounds, what is it loaded with?

[Zeuhl]

/Regardless of your age, any one of you remember seeing such a thing as you walked to school? /

How many have seen such a thing ever! Like now? Very few

aog

once again you make the simple mistake of confusing anecdotal evidence with something valid and meaningful

[anotheoldgit]

triggerhippy

/// They are not assault rifles and they are not loaded with live rounds. ///

Wrong again on both counts.

*** The officers carry Heckler and Koch G36C assault rifles with 5.56mm calibre ammunition that can pierce body armour. ***

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// ah, but in your day, white gangs were dropping bombs on Luton, so there was no need for the locals to add their pennyworth. ///

Ah, Godwin's law gets yet another airing.

[Octavius]

If you are still comparing decades to your utopian 24 hours then there is no real discussion is there.

And quoting Godwins Law is the new Godwins Law.

[jim360]

Ironic, that.

We do need to tackle the current gang culture, certainly. In that I can agree with you. What I find tiresome is this constant rudeness about the world I live in, that somehow it is in many measures far worse than yours. That is an accusation I just do not recognise.

[emmie]

difference with Shipman he was a trusted doctor, who would suspect him?

[emmie]

did anyone watch a programme last evening about officers, not sure what their titles are, who go out to families who's loved ones have been murdered. A very tough job and not one for the faint of heart. I only mention it because i am sure that the voiceover said that there were 700 homicides last year, it was pretty quick so i could have misheard, but if true that is a lot of dead people, murdered by strangers, kin, friends..

[jim360]

Family Liaison Officers. Possibly one of the hardest jobs in the world, I should imagine.

[emmie]

they appeared very calming and helping in a truly terrible situation.

[Zeuhl]

Godwin's Law?

/our country is becoming much more increasingly dangerous than it once was/

hardly surprising that sort of unfounded assertion prompts references to WW2

Or do you think it matters less when people are killed by enemy bombs?

[Brenden]

Love your avatar aog, forget the occasion but one flew over my garden - wonderful - surprised how big the Lancaster is.

[jno]

I mentioned WW2 because you were talking about "in my day", and you were, I believe, an adult in WW2. Feel free to be a bit more specific if you want.

[emmie]

interesting and wasn't far out

http://www.citizensreportuk.org/reports/murders-fatal-violence-uk.html

[FredPuli43]

Don't know about the good old days that aog seems to describe; must have been before my time; though I did experience the good old week. It was sometime between the end of rationing and England losing to Hungary at Wembley. Everything has been bad since.

Now, can someone explain the connection between being bombed in wartime and being shot by mistake by some criminal (the most recent Luton case) or gangs shooting each other ? I know which worries me more.

[jno]

the comparison was purely temporal, FredPuli: is the country more dangerous now than "in my day", as per the OP?

[emmie]

i fear being killed by a cyclist, the ones up here are bonkers. One ran into a pedestrian this morning, they were both at fault mind you, neither were actually looking where they were going, wham, down goes the pedestrian, much bad language on both parts. Luckily neither were seriously hurt.

[LazyGun]

@Trigger I would be interested to read it if you can find the article :)