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Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

cnbc.com

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Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#21

Post by DanBC »

dan1234 wrote: post #3

Does anyone have a link to the data (which is only mentioned once in the article).

I strongly agree that journalists should link to their sources of data.

It seems these figures were "obtained by BBC" through FoI request, not part of normal Met Police data sets.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-39328233

Here's an older FoI request, but it might not be the one the BBC are talking about: https://beta.met.police.uk/globalassets/foi-media/disclosure...

UK crime statistics come in two forms.

1) Police records, which is what this article is talking about. In general these are not seen as statistically robust because they rely on people reporting a crime to the police, and the police recording it. Police forces have improved their recording in recent years.

Here's a link to the Met Police stats: https://beta.met.police.uk/stats-and-data/

Here's a link to press release: http://news.met.police.uk/news/crime-statistics-for-2016-to-...

2) Office for National Statistics. These use a crime survey, and are seen as reliable.

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#22

Post by cm2187 »

tombrossman wrote: post #19
cm2187 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. A violent reaction would be justified. It's like mugging someone with a fake gun. The victim has no way to tell whether the gun is fake or whether his life is at risk, and a violent reaction would be legitimate.

Just to clarify, a violent reaction (in self defence) might be justified. It's not automatic, and would have to be proportional. For example, it might be enough to simply grab the person and hold them down on the ground until the police arrive unless it quickly became obvious that it was just a harmless prank. If they sprayed you with something harmful, or decide to resist being detained then yes, it may be necessary…

If someone threatens my life with a gun, there isn't much violence that wouldn't be appropriate.

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#23

Post by sprash »

junkculture wrote: post #4

Is this peculiar to London or do other places in the UK have the same problem?

This is a Pakistani Muslim problem. So avoid bigger cities. I lived for 10 months in Birmingham, I had to leave because even though I'm a grown man I could not tolerate the terror of people throwing rocks at your window at night. Besides the area around the main Concert Hall there is no particular "British" culture left in that city and acid attacks are definitely not done by local Brits. Nobody says anything because they are scared to be labeled as racists. It's a shame.

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#24

Post by btb »

dagaci wrote: post #20

Acid attacks are mostly related to business disputes, sex, marriage, robbery and honor disputes. The stats and location's where the acid attacks take place: https://www.statista.com/chart/10289/acid-attacks-in-london/ and https://www.met.police.uk/globalassets/foi-media/disclosure_...

Thanks, googled those top 3 trouble spots mentioned and they all seem to be in east london.

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#25

Post by wdb »

barrkel wrote: post #10
MichaelGG wrote: post #5

Odd/interesting that they don't mention motives. They give one example of using acid to commit a mugging. Yet[1] seems to state that acid attacks are mostly male-on-female violence for relationships/shame issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_throwing#Epidemiology So it is a real threat to tourists? It's like when you hear about high crime in some area, but it's mostly gang members killing each other -- it's a s…

80% male, both perpetrators and victims: http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/crime-court/eas... At this point it's mostly gang on gang, and probably driven by anti-knife enforcement. Scooter riders snatching phones are a bigger threat to tourists. The two have been combined recently though, using scooter + acid to hijack and steal other scooters and bikes. This in turn is driven by police not chasing two whe…

Driving a bike and easing a phone is a bad thing anyways. Just as bad as car driving and phone

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#26

Post by wdb »

barrkel wrote: post #10
MichaelGG wrote: post #5

Odd/interesting that they don't mention motives. They give one example of using acid to commit a mugging. Yet[1] seems to state that acid attacks are mostly male-on-female violence for relationships/shame issues. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_throwing#Epidemiology So it is a real threat to tourists? It's like when you hear about high crime in some area, but it's mostly gang members killing each other -- it's a s…

80% male, both perpetrators and victims: http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/crime-court/eas... At this point it's mostly gang on gang, and probably driven by anti-knife enforcement. Scooter riders snatching phones are a bigger threat to tourists. The two have been combined recently though, using scooter + acid to hijack and steal other scooters and bikes. This in turn is driven by police not chasing two whe…

Driving a bike and easing a phone is a bad thing anyways. Just as bad as car driving and phone

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#27

Post by JetSpiegel »

gtirloni wrote: post #7
otp124 wrote: post #2

We recently moved to central-ish London (Zone 1), in a generally safe business area. A few weeks ago my wife & sister were walking home and a man started spraying them with a bottle, screaming "It's raining". Luckily it appeared to be just water. They we're annoyed that they were wet, but now I look at this statistic, and it scares me to think that my family could have been painfully maimed.

Apparently it's now popular to do weird/stupid stuff to foreigners in public places while recording their reactions then post it online for internet glory.

I'm getting flashbacks to Nathan Barley...

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#28

Post by dazc »

tombrossman wrote: post #15
gtirloni wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it's now popular to do weird/stupid stuff to foreigners in public places while recording their reactions then post it online for internet glory.

I wonder what percentage of these people end up recording themselves getting their asses kicked instead? Imagine you are in a foreign city and someone sprayed yourself or a loved one with an unknown substance. I'm not talking about a child with a squirt gun innocently playing around, I mean another adult behaving differently from social norms. I have to think the probability of a violent reaction is pretty high.

In the UK, reacting violently to any kind of attack is very likely to result in you being prosecuted for assault. If anyone is wondering why anti-social behaviour and minor criminality is now so common here it is not that decent people don't want to do anything about it, it is because the Police are often perceived to be on the same side of the assailants.

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#29

Post by sumedh »

sprash wrote: post #23
junkculture wrote: post #4

Is this peculiar to London or do other places in the UK have the same problem?

This is a Pakistani Muslim problem. So avoid bigger cities. I lived for 10 months in Birmingham, I had to leave because even though I'm a grown man I could not tolerate the terror of people throwing rocks at your window at night. Besides the area around the main Concert Hall there is no particular "British" culture left in that city and acid attacks are definitely not done by local Brits. Nobody says anything because…

> I could not tolerate the terror of people throwing rocks at your window at night.

Why, maybe to drive you out of the area?

Re: Fears for tourists in London as acid attacks escalate in recent weeks

#30

Post by collyw »

tombrossman wrote: post #15
gtirloni wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it's now popular to do weird/stupid stuff to foreigners in public places while recording their reactions then post it online for internet glory.

I wonder what percentage of these people end up recording themselves getting their asses kicked instead? Imagine you are in a foreign city and someone sprayed yourself or a loved one with an unknown substance. I'm not talking about a child with a squirt gun innocently playing around, I mean another adult behaving differently from social norms. I have to think the probability of a violent reaction is pretty high.

Getting their asses kicked gets them more hits, so some young youtubers actually aim for that. Though I am never sure how many of them are fake.
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