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

Post by Inconel » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 12:36 PM UTC

foop2 wrote: post #39

sprash wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

That is bullshit there are plenty of areas in Birmingham that have equally scummy white people in them. Also if people are throwing rocks at you, you are def in the wrong area, it's a city there are some places you can't go, it's a bit like walking through inner city LA and being surprised you got robbed.

Post by Symbiote » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 12:42 PM UTC

dazc wrote: post #28

tombrossman wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by XorNot » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 12:45 PM UTC

devwastaken wrote: post #42

weinzierl wrote: post #34

> "Bystanders who come to the aid of the victim of an attack can have an important role in minimising further injury," [..] > They urged bystanders to remove victims from exposure as soon as possible and apply "copious" amounts of water on the affected area, "to minimize the long-term effects of scarring and need for surgical reconstruction." The "'copious' amounts of water on the affected area" part can't be stresse…

Anyone know if it would be possible to neutralize an acid attack in a sprayable fashion with baking soda?/stabilizer?, like the opposite of pepper spray that bystanders can use since water isn't always accessible?

Post by matthewmacleod » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 12:48 PM UTC

tigershark wrote: post #40

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…

It is a real threat. This kind of mugging crimes increased alarmingly especially in east London. Just reading the local newspapers you will find 5-6 such attacks each week. Do you have any source for your hypothesis?

Post by arkades » Sun, Aug 06, 2017, 12:50 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #45

devwastaken wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone know if it would be possible to neutralize an acid attack in a sprayable fashion with baking soda?/stabilizer?, like the opposite of pepper spray that bystanders can use since water isn't always accessible?

This is extremely likely to cause severe burns from the heat of reaction. Neutralizing strong acids is a violent high temperature reaction (in chemistry labs the biggest danger is you flash boil the solution / generate a bunch of gas and it explodes onto you). Water - a lot of water - is the best answer.