In Crime in Britain Part 1: Dunblane, Gun Laws and Violence, we documented the draconian anti-gun measures that were taken in England in reaction to the Dunblane massacre of 1996. We also saw that in spite of all the regulations, buy-back programs and strict enforcement by an increasingly intrusive police force, gun crime had doubled by 2004.

In Crime in Britain Part 2: Yobs and ASBOs we documented even scarier measures taken against a the large dissafected youth population in the form of Anti-Social Behavioral Orders. We also saw that these measures are failing to reign in the culture of vandalism and violence that is firmly rooted in the island nation.

Indeed, by the year 2000, CBS News was reporting that America was safer than the UK as British citizens are more likely to be burglarized, almost twice as likely to be robbed, and two-and-a-half times more likely to be assaulted than their American counterparts.

By 2001 the British government was planning ways to eliminate jury trials and double jeopardy protection.

By 2004, supposedly in reaction to terrorist threats, the British government proposed incarcerating people based on “pre-emptive” charges, before a crime is even committed [and people worry about our little Patriot Act over here].

In 2005, the British government began deploying the army to city streets in order to confront and arrest “drunken yobs” [I believe that would be called "martial law" over here].

The result?

• In Lancashire, reported attacks on paramedics average two per day.
• London averages one reported kidnapping per day as ethnic gangs extort money from terrified families.
• Only one in five reported rapes in London “results in a caution or a charge” [you issue a "caution" for a rape?].
• Worse yet, out of 11,766 allegations of rape made in 2002 there were just 655 convictions — a dismal 5.6% conviction rate.
• Some parts of London are so crime-ridden that DHL (one of the first companies to set up in Baghdad after the fall of Saddam Hussein) has blacklisted areas of the city, refusing to deliver there.

Gun crime is rising out of control, more than doubling in the eight years since some of the most draconian gun laws on the planet were enacted. And yet:

The top judge in England and Wales signalled yesterday that he would support an end to mandatory life sentences for murder.

Eight years of taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens has failed to keep an explosion of gun crime from happening, to the point where teens as young as 14 are carrying and using handguns in the streets of London. Yet the authorities insist on running expensive collection campaigns to collect everything from shotguns to air pistols and actually crow about the “good” that it does:

“It is good to see that the weapons collected during the recent campaign are now off Perthshire’s streets and that the potential for people to misuse them and cause harm to others has been taken away.

The charmingly-named group Keep Britain Tidy reports that 35% of all open spaces are in “shoddy condition” and that youth litter is becoming a national epidemic. To keep drunken yobs off public streets they propose to provide covered places where yobs can meet in safety, thus eliminating their desire to litter, vandalise and assault:

“What we need to do is listen to our kids and give them a safe, well-lit and accessible place to be with their friends – because the alternative is youths congregating in public places, damaging our streets and heightening the fear of crime.”

[When this doesn't work because the yobs can't engage in thier favorite sport of binge drinking, I suppose these good citizens will propose giving yobs their own pubs.]

That crime in Britain is spiraling out-of-control is not in doubt. Yet the government seems to have one response — more and more laws:

Believe it or not, between 1925 and 1980 there were four criminal justice statutes, fewer than one per decade. Blair has passed 27 crime statutes in just seven years. This is obsessional. According to the civil rights group Liberty he has created 750 new criminal offences.

Eight years of draconian gun control laws failed to prevent gun violence from more than doubling. Seven years of ASBO regulation abuse failed to prevent the rise violent cultue by “anti-social” yobs.

The draconian laws led to massive abuse of police power
, yet the latest “tough on crime” legislation has given even more power to the police which will inevitably lead to more abuse:

• Police (not courts) are empowered to order the immediate closure of pubs and clubs that they claim are serving under-age drinkers.
• Police are able to set up “alcohol disorder zones”, areas of as few as 50 or as many as 500 business. These areas will be targeted for extra police presence to target drunken and “anti-social” behavior. To pay for this, each business in the “zone” will be charged £100 every week. [Where I come from, only organized crime shakes down businesses for "protection money".]
• Police are able to ban individuals they deem to be “at risk” of creating disorder as a result of drinking from a specified area for 48 hours. If they deem someone a troublemaker, the police can ban the individual from an area for up to two years.
• Police have already instituted a huge “no-go zone” in London in which they claim the right to ban groups of two or more youths.

This, from the nation from which America inheirited its strong sense of justice.

Next week: Crime in Britain Part 4: The American Comparison