@maporsche,
It is beginning to appear as if you have a personal obsession and/or vendetta for Lash. You really should take a few moments to examine your interaction with her and, in particular, this comment.
The topic of this thread is very interesting in and of itself and actually quite relevant to what is going on (in part) in America.
I would imagine that most Americans who happened upon this report were surprised by it. Some, no doubt, were alarmed and perhaps concerned. To paraphrase Lou Reed,
there are even some evil mothers who will tell you that life is a bit cheerier now that they heard this news.
London (and the UK overall) is renown (and in some cases revered) among Americans for it's very strict (by comparison) gun laws. Americans who have any interest in the world at large and are educated at least enough to know that England was not our adversary in the Civil War, are probably familiar with the fact that the majority of "bobbies" walking beats in London do not carry guns. It would be comforting to know that college students are also aware that, in fact, approx 20% of London police do indeed carry firearms and the ones they carry are generally of a much higher firepower than a NYC cop's standard issue revolver because this would be an indication that they know more about other nations and cultures than
"Believe It or Not" facts. Based on what I've read and heard about the average college student's knowledge of world and American history, I'll settle for campus kids knowing that it was the British we fought during the Revolutionary War and not the Russians, the Mexicans of Southern rebels. But I digress...
If all you know about the UK is that they still have a Queen, they like tea, they call soccer football, and their police don't carry guns, the chances are this story will surprise you. Ignorance is not the same thing as stupidity and I'm relatively confident that even people who couldn't tell us any more about the UK than what I've enumerated can figure out that if gun ownership is heavily restricted and 80% or more of the cops don't have the need to carry firearms while on duty, the crime rate and the nature of crime there must be different from what they are here.
Reading of London's dubious achievement, one might feel sorry for Londoners, or somehow guilty about America's culture of violence infecting our European friends. One might also feel a bit of schadenfreude over the plight of a city of people who, overall, feel rather smug and superior to Yanks living in NYC and other major American cities because of relative crime rates
and a few other things. Or, if one opposes the idea of the US adopting UK or Australian gun laws, one might feel vindicated by this development:
"See?" one might exclaim
"Despite their strict gun laws, they caught up to and surpassed New York City's murder rate! New York City! Soon they'll be leaving Chicago in the dust!"
Now, our British friends here (As well as the ever helpful Walter) have been quick to point out (and correctly) that London
beat NYC for most murders
in only one single month: February 2018, and that feat could easily be a result of nothing more than (bad) luck. Regardless, they tell us, one month out of many years is not a trend and anyone who suggests otherwise is mistaken (
and if American, all too typically an ignorant fool who is too busy crowing about winning WWII and expecting the UK to kiss Uncle Sam's butt to bother to examine the facts before jumping to conclusions that advance obnoxious Yank chauvinism!)
But I continue to digress...
Satire aside, the story is surprising and most surprises are interesting. Considering the media's current focus on gun control and the people who advocate increasing restrictions, the story is quite relevant, and even more so when one reads that assaults with knives seem to be on the rise in the UK and beyond the confines of a single month. No doubt you have heard or read the argument that violence, not guns are America's problem and that if our cities are rid of firearms, the violent will turn to other weapons...like knives.
See? Interesting
and relevant.
Finally, the title of this thread is "What's up in London? Murder rate surpassed NY."
and it was started by Lash herself. Note that she didn't introduce it to batham's
Trump Sucks thread or edgar's
Democrats Suck thread. She created a separate thread for discussion of the interesting and relevant story and, aside from your contributions, that's what she has gotten.
Now you are advancing the, frankly, bizarre argument that she created the thread as some sort of diversion. Diversion from what? Is she in some way compelled to discuss only the topics you wish her to? Are you, for some reason miffed that she didn't remain rooted in the
Trump Sucks or
Democrats Suck threads? And if so, why? It can't be that you want to keep an eye on her and if she escapes those two threads and starts one of her own it makes it more difficult for you to keep track of her whereabouts on A2K. It can't be...can it?
I'm sure you will have an explanation that will put me in my place for suggesting such nonsense, and I look forward to reading it.
