The greatest risk to tourists is from street muggings, snatch-and-grabs, and credit card cloning (or 'swiping'). Items in greatest demand include suitcases, holdalls, shoulder-bags, wallets, camcorders, laptops, mobile phones and MP3 players.
28.3.04 - The odds of being attacked are 1 in 40. This is horrifyingly high if you stop to think about it.
13.5.04 - Over 2,000 mobile phones are stolen in London every week. A staggering figure. These street snatches are often violent affairs, and can have a traumatic, lasting effect on victims out of all proportion to the trivial nature of the item taken. If your phone is snatched, for goodness sake just put it down to experience. Do NOT chase after the thieves. Following them into a blind alley or other lonely spot is only going to get you stabbed, raped or shot in the head as well. Is a stupid phone worth that? No, not even if it's G3 enabled!
25.1.05 - Violent crime is up another 6% in the past year. There were 10,600 gun crimes - this in a country where there aren't supposed to be any guns! How crazy can you get? There was even a brand new 'fashion' crime called happy-slapping or snuff-texting, whereby random people were slapped, punched, or even set on fire, without any warning, while other members of the same teenage gang laughingly took pictures with their mobile phone cameras - which they would then text to other gangs to show off. But what can you expect in a land where you are more likely to see ten parking wardens than one policeman? Or where we send up a police helicopter costing thousands of pounds an hour to catch a lady because she was seen eating an apple while driving her car! That same lady was taken to court nearly a dozen times until, eventually, some dickhead of a judge was found who would pronounce her guilty even though no actual law had been broken. The mind boggles! The real criminals must laugh themselves silly at times!
20.1.06 - Another year is underway and we learn, in Reading, a little-known town in England, just west of London, that muggers, not content with the £40 they stole off a victim they'd beaten unconscious, then proceeded to use a broken glass to slice off both ears and both eyelids.
25.1.06 - Robberies and violent crime are up 11%. That is a massive rise. Double last year's increase. The official response to the failure to stem this tidal wave of crime was "we will review the way crime figures are calculated"! At least, nobody tries to tell us anymore that people's perception of crime is worse than it really is - which was the infuriating policy of just a few years ago.
14.5.07 - Street crime is up nearly 10%. Again! The main targets for muggers are mobile phones and iPods.
13.6.07 - The police have a much bigger presence on the streets these days, which is great to see. Unfortunately though, you see them ambling around in twos or threes. It would be far more efficient if they patrolled singly round the blocks, following figure-of-eight path-crossing routes instead. That way, there would be less chatting and much more observing, plus assistance for each other when needed would be just a street away, and there would always be a possibility that a street-villain running from one patrolman would run straight into the path of the other (which cannot happen at present). One of us here got mugged today for the first time ever. Previously, we've 'only' suffered the periodic problems of burglaries or vehicle vandalism/break-ins. Anyway, he came out of a local shop with a purchase in his hand. Two pretty young girls engaged him in conversation - but only as a divergence before snatching the purchase out of his hand and running off lightning fast in different directions. Sign of the times, we guess, as more and more people are being crammed into new housing developments everywhere, often on former green park land - leaving the youngsters nowhere to play. If nothing else, an ego-flattering mugging was more preferable to the commoner, brutal, knife-threat types that other people experience. "Always look on the bright side of life." While you've still got one!
19.6.07 - London was named the world's second most expensive city. Up from 5th a year earlier. Others that will cost you a bomb are 1. Moscow, 3 Seoul, 4 Tokyo, 5 Hong Kong.
16.1.08 - How many children (people under the age of 16) are stabbed or shot non-fatally in London each week? What would your guess be? Two? Three? None? Go on, think about it, and make a reasoned guess. When a law was brought in ten years ago of 5 years in jail for possessing a gun, we said at the time it would be ineffective and what was really needed was ten years for possessing a gun and five years just for possessing a knife. All it would have needed was two or three well-publicised cases of feral youngsters being banged up for 5 years for merely carrying a knife and the growing problem of knife crime would have been nipped in the bud straight away. Also, ten years for merely possessing a gun might well have had a similar effect on gun crime. So, what was your guess on the number of kids being shot or stabbed every week in London? Figures just released show the number is an astounding 35 a week. That can't be true? Surely not?! Anyway, if you're coming here on holiday, you could be forgiven for thinking the message is don't bring the kids!
24.01.08 - Gun crime is up another 4%. This, as we have said before, is in a country where there aren't supposed to be any guns. Bobbies don't carry them. There are no armed soldiers on the street. You never see anybody wielding a gun when you're out and about. So what's going on? It's mad.
Despite the above warnings, please do not really be put off holidaying in London. Obviously there is a terrible risk from rising crime. The answer is to be careful, vigilant and, above all, non-confrontational at all times. Then, almost certainly, you will be able to return home, after a truly memorable holiday, without ever noticing just how bad things are getting in this once "green and pleasant land."