As I genuinely do not want to call anyone o here an outright liar, I will politely suggest that either you misheard the story or didn’t pick up all the facts, or, as happens here, you have heard a second hand story about the UK and have reprinted it in this thread as a personal story.
As a Brit, who btw does not have any problem with any legitimate criticism of the UK at all, your friends story simply does not sound credible on either point, esp the latter ‘sell your house’ ‘fact’.
The British police, any western police for that matter, would never say that to a UK homeowner. And if they had, believe me, it would have been frontpage news.
IF you can prove the story, I will hapiily retract and apologise for my recent comments immediately.
I am sorry if you are angry at me for challenging you, but as a an actual Brit, if I think someone is telling lies or passing off myths about what is after all MY country, I will challenge them, and if that means upsetting the other poster, so be it. And I would expect you to do thw same if I told questionable facts or stories about the US.
Feel free to ignore me, or put me on ignore, if you wish.
I am not upset that you dispute this story, only that you have chosen to dispute it in a manner we do not generally employ on FR. Personal attacks are specifically forbidden, and telling a lady that “Frankly, yes,” you consider her a liar may certainly be said to constitute such a personal attack. Your defense of your country does you credit but your immediate hostility and accusation does not.
I have related the events as they were told to me by my friend, a person of integrity. This is not some tale I had read or had gotten third-hand. It took place about ten years ago.
Note that nowhere in my account did I claim that the British police refused to investigate. There are times police simply can’t catch bad guys, as when there is no description or evidence.
And if you think that no Western police force would advise a homeowner to sell up and move away: believe me, it happens here all the time. When people are plagued by stalkers or other repeat criminals the police often advise them to move away. Someone in my immediate family who was the victim of a crime had this advice from the state’s attorney and the assistant state’s attorney (a prosecutor) when a criminal was about to be released from prison; he explained that the police could not mount a perpetual guard over her. So it seems not an unlikely or unjust recommendation to give to a frightened old woman who cannot protect herself.
I trust you won’t dispute that crime has been growing in the UK and that the police are a bit overwhelmed? It is certainly a complaint my English friends have, and it is not an attack on your country, which I love well, to note this. It’s certainly something worth discussing as I consider spending several months there later this year.