Skyrocketing crime rates - not just in the USA

 

I note that violent street crime, shoplifting, etc. are rapidly increasing in Britain, just as much as they are in the USA.

Shoreham-by-Sea is at the forefront of a retail theft epidemic gripping Britain, as shoplifting soars to a record high.

The number of reported cases in England and Wales hit 430,104 last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, the highest since records began in 2003.

Outside Westminster, the district of Adur that is home to Shoreham-by-Sea had the joint-highest rate relative to the population, at 22 offences for every 1,000 people. 

Neighbouring Worthing, and Mansfield further afield in Nottinghamshire, shared the unwanted crown.

Sussex Police meanwhile had the second lowest solved rate for shoplifting at 10pc, ranking only behind the Metropolitan Police. 

In Shoreham Central and Beach, 97.6pc of reported shoplifting incidents were unsolved, Telegraph analysis shows.

Many businesses all across the country will know these issues all too well. As theft rates have soared, rates of those being solved have plummeted.

Only one in seven incidents of shoplifting in England and Wales were solved last year, according to Home Office figures. The figure has halved since comparable records were first published in 2016 and is now at its lowest. 

It is not just shoplifting that is on the rise. Robberies of businesses have also risen to the highest level since 2005. 

A creaking justice system, large cuts to policing and prisons on the verge of having to turn guilty people away have laid the foundations for this crisis. 

The cost of living, rising levels of addiction and organised criminals seizing the opportunity to steal with impunity have made it worse. 

. . .

It comes as thousands of prisoners will be released early in September to relieve overcrowding.

Britain’s prisons are believed to be just weeks away from running out of space, a situation that Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood blamed on the previous government and said had left left her with “no choice” but to take action.

As a result, some offenders will be released after serving only 40pc of their sentence rather than half. Exemptions will be made for sexual and serious violent offenders.

The alternative would risk “looters running amok, smashing in windows, robbing shops”, Mahmoud said. However, this is not far from what British retailers say they are already seeing.

There's much more at the link.  It's worth reading, to tick the boxes about what Britain is seeing that we're also seeing in many parts of this country.  They're very similar - including the increasing violence of criminals.

There is, of course, another factor besides those named - one the news media dare not name, in either country, for fear of being labeled racists or bigots or whatever.  That is that both countries are dealing with a massive influx of illegal or quasi-legal aliens or "migrants".  Street crime and shoplifting is increasingly being committed by that group, sometimes almost to the exclusion of other groups.  I worked with law enforcement for decades, and maintain my contacts with them.  Almost everyone with whom I speak in that demographic tells me that it's a migrant problem - but they're not allowed to say so.  It's a firing offence if they do.  It's a politically incorrect "third rail" that they dare not touch.

I'd like to see some properly collected, collated and analyzed statistics dealing with that . . . but we can forget about that as long as left-wing progressive local, state and national governments and bureaucracy prevent them from being gathered.

Peter