Saturday 25 August 2007

Bad Week For Liverpool

I understood fully before moving to the Liverpool area that I would be exposed to more incidence of violent crime than my rural upbringing got me used to. That said, I was never expecting the levels which the city has experienced over the last couple of days.

On Wednesday, we had the shooting of 11 year old, Rhys Jones, in the Croxteth area of the city. Now, I'm not usually moved by events like this (I tend to put things in proportion to world events), but watching the parents of Rhys plea for information regarding the crime was genuinely upsetting. However, if this wasn't enough, I woke up today to the news that at 10:30 last night, two bouncers at a bar/restaurant a mere 100 meters from my roost, were shot, leaving one critically ill in hospital.


Although I concede that Liverpool is not war torn Iraq, it's nonetheless unnerving to know that individuals on your doorstep have access to weapons, not to mention the fact they seem willing to use them.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gun crime in Liverpool is lower than most other cities in the UK - look at the records for Nottingham (far more dangerous city) - the situation is highlighted because of the age of the (apparently unintended) victim ... Press hysteria and their focus does little to help anyone, and needs to be dampened down by calm, informed responses not mass vigils and "gnashing of teeth" ...

Paul said...

Rob, I totally agree with you. As I said, I usually don't pay much attention to this kind of stuff simply because it pails into insignificance when you consider that 2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day (which I was only to happy to tell the maddeline macann 'awarness' stand in the centre on Liverpool the other day). When someone gets shot outside your door though it is a tad unnerving, on a personal level, but I don't believe any of this warrents national news.