One of these two stories is a crime, compare

Thought of the day

28 gun crimes committed in UK every day

and

The shocking truth

The paradox of cracking down on certain crimes is that they rise - it’s a bit obvious that one.  If you crack down on drugs, recorded drug crimes rise, if you crack down on guns, gun crime rises. Note - deaths from gun crime are down and injuries were up so insignificantly the Telegraph doesn’t quote them.  Even as a context free percentage.  I wonder sometimes whether people are thick or whether they want to scare people into conforming to whatever politics of the day they follow (see also the Independent re: recession (not going to be catastrophic in Europe or Asia) or catastrophic global warming (yes, global warming is a major problem, but no it’s not like the movies)).  Maybe they’re just desperately trying to conform to whichever readership they chase.  It’s all very 20th Century.  The Independent is right in this case though.  And people being scared of crime is scary.  It diverts public money irrationally, it creates fear, it demonises people (see The Daily Mail/The Daily Express on Romanians today) and it creates a situation where people cannot debate based on evidence.  Only beliefs and feelings.  Not good. 

See also:

 Risk of becoming a victim of crime at 27 year low