Any upturn in the crime rate is a tragedy. But beware those who offer rapid/fast-fixes or New York-inspired crackdownsAn intruder is stabbed to death during a burglary in London’s Hither Green. Across town in Hackney,two men are killed by stabbing. The killings sent London’s 2018 death tally to 50, up by a half on the same period final year. Britain is facing a “murder crisis”. Or is it facing a crisis in the journalism – and politics – of statistics?Personal tragedies are tough not to report. Carnage on the streets of London is a story. If it bleeds it leads, and particularly if bolstered by a usable,and abusable, fact. London’s recent killings generated a sensational one. For the first time in living memory, or its murder rate overtook New York’s,with 22 deaths in March to the Big Apple’s 21. Those of us who were once smug about America’s urban violence had a impolite shock. Was Harlem to be upstaged by the killing fields of Hackney?Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk