Stobart Stopper said:
Well said, Jessiedog. Yes, you are lucky in that you live in a place where this sort of thing isn't tolerated. That's because the justice system is hard on this type of crime, any crime even. This country is too soft IMO, when someone commits a crime it's ALWAYS got to be someone's else's fault.....bad childhood and upbringing, lack of money, poverty, lack of education...etc etc.
There's a few people in my mum's side of the family who have had all of this but they didn't go out robbing.
Yeah!
Not like me. I came over all
Mrs Thatcher for a moment there.
I don't know really and perhaps I'm being WAY too harsh (or just getting old - things ain't how they used to be, y'know?
) because I
do recognise deprivation, poverty, lack of opportunity, shoddy parenting, etc. as contributing the problem.
That said, I believe there has to be a bottom line. And the bottom line for me is to not have to worry about being violently attacked, just for walking down the street. It would be an intolerable situation.
Especially if it was the more vunerable peeps likely to be targetted.
Like I say, we don't get much of that here. Most "crime" is committed by illegal immigrants from the Mainland and boils down to working illegally (prostitution mainly, but also construction, restaurant kitchens, etc.). Burglaries are the favorite method of garnering "loot", but the burglars are often woefully inept, arriving by boat from Guangdong, armed with hand drawn maps directing them to "Victoria Peak", where the rich people live. They invariably either get caught on the Peak, or get lost and then caught anyway. There's been a bit of a racket going recently with Mainlanders coming in boats and digging up rare trees (such as incense trees,) from our country parks to smuggle back for a hefty profit - the cops have stepped up patrols in the countryside and activity is diminishing.
There was a case a few years ago when someone was wrapping a glass bottle, full of water, in a placcy bag and coming up behind women on the street, bopping them on the head with it and nicking their bags - happened about 5 or 6 times over a period of a few months. Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, more shocked and bruised.
Then they caught a guy in the act who confessed to being the perp and plead guilty in court.
He got six years.
It hasn't happened since.
I can understand people being hungry and desparate and I can also appreciate people wanting to have more than they do, but I DON"T think allowing these peeps to make a living by attacking others makes sense.
Whereas I will certainly accept that the lack of (violent) street crime and the general lack of violence here is partially a cultural phenonena, I also believe that harsh sentences have helped play their part - it would seem that those bent on theft would prefer burglary of an empty house given the pickings can be rich and the penalties much lower (although burglaries are very, very few too).
There is very much an ethos here that nicking someone elses shit is uncool 'cos they probably really grafted hard to get whatever they have and it just isn't fair to jeapordise their and their family's situation. Although we
do still get a few little old ladies conned out of a few thousand quid now and again (especially around the various "ancestor" festivals,) by swift-talking charlatans in Buddhist robes promising to "change bad luck", "heal a relatives illness" or "dispel evil ghosts". And there're those who prey on others greed by selling a batch of worthless "gold" ornaments or "expensive" electronic components, that turn out, of course, to be worthless once the sting has been played and the gang departed.
We also tend to prefer good, old-fashioned fraud and money laundering.
But violence, against peeps on the street, or in their homes, or anywhere - is fairly taboo.
Say
NO to (violent) street crime!
(The Triads, of course, are another matter entirely and the "threat" of violence is always implicit for small businesses who must consider their "security". But any "incidents" are remarkably rare - most see the small monthly "fee" as a cost of doing business. There's the occasional "torching" of some hawker stand in a market somewhere, but rarely. The most fun is when two major Triads have a shakedown and you get 70 or 80 "cool lookin' doods" in black jeans, tight white tee-shirts and dark sunglasses marching down Nathan Road giving each other the attitude. Or there's the aftermath of a nightime clash outside a Karaoke joint, snooker hall or Mahjong parlour where two Triads have clashed and a dozen or so yoofs with orange hair and dragon tattoos are lugged off to hospital to be wiped, stitched, bandaged and plastered before being shovelled of to the cop-shop.)
Woof
).
) areas.
