ELDERLY BRITONS CONTRIBUTING TO YOUTH CRIME PROBLEM

Britons are increasingly frightened of young people (bold as in source):

Last year more than 1.5 million Britons thought about moving away from their local area due to young people hanging around and 1.7 million avoided going out after dark as a direct result.

British adults are less likely than those in other European countries to stop teenagers committing anti social behaviour. Sixty five per cent of Germans, 52 per cent of Spanish and 50 per cent of Italians would be willing to intervene if they saw a group of 14 year old boys vandalising a bus shelter, compared to just 34 per cent of Britons.

So, what's the problem?

In the past, local parents tended to look out for children in a community, deciding what behaviour was appropriate, how it should be dealt with and supporting each other in doing so. In closer knit communities, adults supervised their neighbours' children. These days, adults tend to turn a blind eye or cross over on the other side of the road rather than intervene in the discipline of another person’s child, often because they fear they might be attacked.

The elderly, far more vulnerable than adolescents thugs, are apparently bringing this violence on themselves. And the situation isn't going to get better any time soon:

A rise in social paedophobia will simply make matters worse.

Nicolas Sarkozy also feels little sympathy for the victims of crime:

I would like to say one thing, in what is my conception of the Republic, security is the responsibility of the State, I am against militias, I am against the private ownership of firearms, and I’m trying to make you think about that. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he’ll use his weapon more effectively than you anyway so you’re risking your life. If the criminal is not armed and you are and you shoot, your life will be ruined, because killing someone over a theft is not in line with the republican values that are mine. The private ownership of firearms is dangerous. I understand your exasperation for having been burglarized two times, I understand the fear that your wife and daughter may have but the answer is in the efficiency of the police and the efficiency of the judiciary process, the answer is not in having guns at home.

The police who arrive 20 minutes later aren't going to be much help to the someone who is beaten senseless and robbed. Maybe if old timers were armed and trained in the use of firearms...