Insisting that the government's policies on gun crime were working, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said: "We are concerned that the number of gun-related incidents have gone up, but it has now started to fall as a result of measures introduced by my predecessors over the past three to four years."
Spin is not the most respected tool in a politician's arsenal, and I'm damn sure it should never be used when dealing with the growing number of deaths on our streets. It is true that gun-related incidents have started to fall, but while overall gun crime is down, the number of deaths and injuries from gun attacks in England and Wales has risen from 864 in 1998-99 to 3,821 last year. Nick Herbert, the Tory spokesman on justice, pointed out: "It is clear from the Home Office's own figures that the number of deaths and injuries from gun crime has quadrupled under this government. They simply don't seem to know what to do."
Let's get this straight, Jack Straw says the number of gun-related incidents has started to fall. How can this be true if the number of people being killed has quadrupled? It couldn't be down to the old Labour trick of changing the way gun crimes are recorded could it? The same way waiting lists in Hospitals have been reduced by putting you on a different waiting list every few months and counting you as being dealt with?
Spin is not the most respected tool in a politician's arsenal, and I'm damn sure it should never be used when dealing with the growing number of deaths on our streets. It is true that gun-related incidents have started to fall, but while overall gun crime is down, the number of deaths and injuries from gun attacks in England and Wales has risen from 864 in 1998-99 to 3,821 last year. Nick Herbert, the Tory spokesman on justice, pointed out: "It is clear from the Home Office's own figures that the number of deaths and injuries from gun crime has quadrupled under this government. They simply don't seem to know what to do."
Let's get this straight, Jack Straw says the number of gun-related incidents has started to fall. How can this be true if the number of people being killed has quadrupled? It couldn't be down to the old Labour trick of changing the way gun crimes are recorded could it? The same way waiting lists in Hospitals have been reduced by putting you on a different waiting list every few months and counting you as being dealt with?
Labour, tough on crime - tough on manipulating the statistics of crime.
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The President of ACPO on today's Radio 4 John Humphreys' programme sought to attack David Cameron's use of the phrase 'anarchy on our streets' by saying he did not recognise that as the true picture of crime in Britain today. He will, some would cynically suggest, be towing a Government line in order to secure the knighthood which by tradition goes with his appointment and/or seeking to protect his service from the justified public perception that policing is today failing to deliver a more safe and peaceful society.
However a look at the H.O's own figures (although SPUN by combining the police official statistics on recorded crime with those obtained from the British Crime Survey)tell the true story:-
England & Wales
Violence Against the Person
1998/9 - 500000
2005/6 - 1050000
All violent Crime
1998/9 - 600000
2005/6 - 1200000
Robbery
1998/9 - 65000
2001/2 - 120000
2005/6 - 100000
Robbery of Personal Property
1989/9 - 58000
2001/2 - 108000
2005/6 - 90000
Criminal Damage
1989/9 - 900000
2005/6 - 1200000
These figures show that there has been an upward trend in violent offences in the past eighteen and more years and that combined with the criminal damage offences are the very matters that make the general public fearful. The public know what is happening around them, they read the papers and hear the radio and TV reports, they experience the oft not reported damage to their property, they see the graffiti, they are subject to the crude and offensive responses that they get from young people if they dare to try and remonstrate with them,they know the police are usually powerless to help them and should they take the law into their own hands they know they are likely to become the villain rather the victim.
Modern policing was created to protect the public and for the prevention and detection of crime.
Today's police, especially chief officers appear to have lost sight of their traditional role and their raison d'etre. Rather than being servants of the public they, like most other members of the governmental and local government services seem to think and act as if they are the masters.
It is time your leader took the initiative and challenged the information being released by and on behalf of government. He should have his researchers look closely at the crime statistics and TOMORROW go on the Radio 4 and rebuff the spurious comments of the President of ACPO.
Ask any retired police officer if he recognises the picture painted by this chief officer. Their answer will be 'not at all'.
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