Topic category:  Other/General

by Jim Kouri, CPP

While most Americans are witnessing dramatic decreases in violent and property crime, our friends and allies across the pond in Britain are experiencing alarming increases. In a recent British news article, the writer lamented the loss of British citizens who have fled the United Kingdom and moved to Australia or the United States. They estimate that over a quarter-million Britons leave the British Isles each year.

Last year alone over 324,000 Brits left for greener pastures in the US and Australia. However, Britain's population continues to grow with massive immigration and their higher birthrate. Brit flight -- coupled with a lower birth rate among Britons -- will almost certainly accelerate a change in demographics.

The newspaper, The Independent, quoted one businessman who complained that crime and immigration -- mostly from the Middle East and North Africa -- are out of control. With this increase in immigrants -- legal and illegal -- came an increase in crime, violence and civil unrest.  The businessman moved to Australia.

An example of this disenchantment with life in the British Isles is the recent release from prison of thousands of violent criminals and sex offenders who are putting Britons at severe risk, according to a damning report. A high-profile study to be published later this month is expected to reveal that dangerous ex-convicts are not being screened properly before they're released, and they are not being adequately supervised in the community.

According to London-based journalist Sophie Goodwin, there are about 30,000 released prisoners convicted of violent and sexual offenses currently living in the community, thousands of whom are infrequently supervised. The potential threat becomes more profound by a soon-to-be released report after an extensive investigation into the murder of a London banker. The final investigative report is likely to blame his killing on the failures in the British criminal justices system to monitor dangerous ex-cons, many of whom are immigrants.

The International Crime Victims Survey, based on 34,000 telephone interviews across 17 countries, found that 26 percent of people -- more than one in four -- in England and Wales had been victims of crime. The figure for Scotland was 23 percent and in Northern Ireland 15 percent.  The United States had a 21 percent crime victimization rate.

After Australia and England and Wales, the highest prevalence of crime was in Holland (25 percent), Sweden (25 percent) and Canada (24 per cent), all higher than the United States. In fact, if one discounts crimes committed by illegal aliens -- almost 30 percent of American crime -- the US would show even more dramatic decreases in violence and crime.

And what has been the British government's reaction? There are suspicions that crime reports are being manipulated to cover-up the increased dangers to public safety.

A headline in the London Daily Telegraph said it all: "Crime Figures a Sham, Say Police." The story noted that "pressure to convince the public that police were winning the fight against crime had resulted in a long list of ruses to 'massage' statistics," and "the recorded crime level bore no resemblance to the actual amount of crime being committed."

For example, where a series of homes were burgled, they were regularly recorded as one crime. If a burglar hit 15 or 20 flats, only one crime was added to the statistics.

A 2000 report from the Inspectorate of Constabulary charges Britain's 43 police departments with systemic under-classification of crime – for example, by recording burglary as "vandalism." The report lays much of the blame on the police's desire to avoid the extra paperwork associated with more serious crimes. Others say the officers are told to reclassify serious crimes to less-than-serious.

Not Surprising is the fact that Britons suffer through more burglaries than Americans. The US burglary rate is less than half the English rate. And, while 53 percent of British burglaries occur when someone is at home, only 13 percent do in America. Some believe this may be attributed to the fact that there is a greater likelihood of homeowners being armed in America, therefore America's burglars prefer committing their crimes when occupants are out. No so in Britain.

Recently, Britain's senior police officers claimed mass immigration has created a whole new range of crimes threatening to overwhelm towns and cities across the country.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), claims that the mass movement of people around the world had brought new levels of organized crime, with drug dealing, gun offenses, prostitution and kidnapping.

Claiming the numbers of asylum seekers coming to Britain had reached "tidal wave" proportions, Fox said, "Mass migration has brought with it a whole new range and a whole new type of crime, from the Nigerian fraudster, to the eastern European who deals in drugs and prostitution to the Jamaican concentration on drug dealing."

Add to that the home grown criminals and we have a whole different family of people who are competing to be in the organized crime world, he said in an interview with The Observer ahead of ACPO's annual conference. Fox said that he did not blame genuine asylum seekers, but some towns and cities were struggling to cope with the influx.

"The mass movement of people has made it worse. It is accepted that [if] people do move for security, safety and to avoid terror, among them there will be people who aren't moving for those purposes. Similarly, gangs see a chance to earn money by moving people and getting people into countries without going through all the checks. This mass movement brings with it the opportunity for criminals to move and to make money," Fox told The Observer.

While overall crime in Europe is rising, the liberal-left in American continues to deceptively use the myth of low crime in Britain, France and other countries in order to disarm US gunowners, embarrass US law enforcement, and claim socialist programs will reduce crime in the United States.

They will argue we should seek to duplicate Europe's strategies for combating poverty, drug addiction, crime and violence. Well, we should just tell our friends on the left, "No thanks, we're doing fine without your help."

Jim Kouri
Chief of Police Magazine (Contributing Editor)

Biography - Jim Kouri

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for a number of organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional.