Arrow crime is still OK.
Posted on 04/18/2006 9:33:55 AM PDT by robowombat
City blighted by gun crime had hoped the worst was behind it By John O'connor (Filed: 15/02/2006)
Dubbed "Assassination City" and "Shottingham" after an explosion in gun crime two years ago, police and council leaders in Nottingham were confident that the city's battered image was being restored following a sharp fall in the number of shootings.
Unfortunately, after the events of Monday, that confidence has proved to be misplaced.
Last year the council appointed a "reputation manager" to repair the city's image following a flood of damaging headlines about crime and binge drinking.
Steve Green, Nottinghamshire's chief constable, added to the sense of crisis when he said that he would consider farming out murder inquiries to other forces because his officers were overrun and "struggling to cope", although he later retracted his remarks.
In 2003 there were 77 reported shootings in Nottinghamshire, which fell to 44 in 2004 and only 11 last year.
The last fatal shooting in the city was last March when Paul Thomas was gunned down outside a pub in Hyson Green, and the authorities hoped that the trend had been reversed.
But, as they found yesterday, it only takes one high profile incident to shatter the illusion.
Nottingham's violent crime problem first came to national attention with the shooting of Marian Bates, 64, who was killed during a robbery on her jeweller's shop in Arnold in 2003.
Her death provoked national debate about the state of policing in Britain, with her husband, Victor, attacking the lack of officers on the streets.
Peter Williams, 20, was later jailed for life. It transpired that he had been let out of prison early on licence.
A year later Danielle Beccan, 14, was killed after being caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting near her home in the St Ann's area of the city.
Her death was the result of a violent feud between rival drugs gangs from the St Ann's and Meadows areas of the city.
Powerful crime families were also said to be controlling areas of the city, leading to an escalation in violence.
The police and council have devoted huge amounts of money to gun and drug crime. Since 2002 officers have seized more than 350 firearms, recovered around 3,500 rounds of ammunition and detained more than 600 offenders.
In addition, the force has seized £1 million-worth of class A drugs and achieved the highest arrest-to-charge rate in the country.
In the wake of Danielle Beccan's killing, a multi-agency campaign - Nottingham Stands Together - was launched with a three-year strategy to deal with gang violence and stamp out gun crime.
Danielle's death also inspired a high-profile poster campaign, called Not In My City, featuring images of well-known and ordinary people from Nottingham united in their resolve to reject gun crime.
A related two-week gun amnesty saw more than 50 weapons handed in at police stations across the city.
What's a reputation manager to do? oh my...
I remember reading a fairy tale about him...
But -- but -- I thought GUNS WERE BANNED IN JOLLY OLD ENGLAND?? Must be marauding bands of French malcontents (sorry, redundant!)
And in answer to the question "What's a reputation manager to do?" I'd offer the same advice to him -- and any other Brit with a brain -- we hear Tony Soprano get each week "Get yourself a gun..."
Arrow crime is still OK.
So 50 peaceful non-aggressors just disarmed themselves? Darwin rules!
Her death was the result of a violent feud between rival drugs gangs from the St Ann's and Meadows areas of the city.
Funny - there seem to be no violent feuds between rival beer gangs, or rival aspirin gangs, or rival cellphone gangs, or rival comic book gangs, etc. I wonder why that is...
> there seem to be no violent feuds between rival beer gangs, or rival aspirin gangs, or rival cellphone gangs, or rival comic book gangs, etc. I wonder why that is...
Beer, aspirin, cellphones and comic books ain't illegal. Drugs and guns are (in the UK), and thus if someone's going to go to the bother of breaking one law... what's one more?
Obviously you've never seen video of their football matches.
Don't bring a bow and arrow to a gun fight.
"Scottish! Soccer! Hooligan! Weekly!" "Brought to you by... Doc Marten boots; they're great for kicking in heads, and I'm not kidding!"
Don't these law breakers understand the law? It's illegal. It's double-super-secret illegal! What must we do next, make ignoring these laws illegal?
Why, there may be as many as 1,000 rounds of ammunition lurking throughout Britain, just waiting for a hapless victim to pick one up and...dare I say it...place it inside the clip of their automatic revolver and fall under it's deadly spell?
clearly the solution is to pass another gun law.
From the context, this appears to be thought to be a good thing.
However, you'd get a high arrest-to-charge rate if there were a gazillion arrests with only one charge. With no charges, the rate would be infinite.
Methinks the author's a fool. Probably meant "charge-to-arrest".
Nottinghamshire county's population is about 750K. A murder rate of 77 makes their homicide rate per 100K population higher than New York City's worst year
"place it inside the clip of their automatic revolver and fall under it's deadly spell?"
Automatic revolver?? Where can I get one, tellmetellmetellme, gotta have one tellme!! PLEEEZZ?
The world's smallest minigun perhaps? 8^)
Or a hand-held gatlin gun!
Just HAVE to get me one of those!
I've seen several articles about what passes from crime "statistics" in Britain, and there is only once thing for certain. The "stats" and reality are in separate universes.
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