2021 Get a Bit Paranoid at Home the UK is Different to the USA
There is a big disconnect between what is a threat in the UK and what is a threat in the USA when it comes to home protection. I focus here on the protection of people not property. Property is reasonably easy to protect to a degree but if it is lost then it is lost. You can in most cases replace it. People you cannot replace and even if an attack on people in the home is not fatal, the victims are seldom the same again.
The UK Situation
First we do not have as many guns out and about. This means that the type of attack on people in the home that involves several scumbags barging in is rare. Certainly if you have a big house and reputation for wealth it might be an issue for you but for most of us it is not.
Guns allow a possibility of instant control. You can see this sort of crime by the plenty in the USA on YouTube. Security footage shows what I would say are ordinary homes being invaded. One example is of a 23 year old Oklahoma man who was at home when three men dressed in black broke into his house. They were all armed. He killed all three after an exchange of bullets.
Here in Britain burglars do carry weapons sometimes, but they tend to hit houses when people are out or asleep.
When people are likely to be at home they tend to talk their way in. These are called distraction burglaries. They pretend to be from the council or water company etc. Once in they normally give an excuse to either look around and steal or try and con the owner into a charge for work that does not need doing.
These burglaries along with the others can turn violent. Rarely are they planned for violence. That I think might well change.
My Case For UK Citizens To Think More About Violence In The Home
We have a weak police force. They are weak for three main reasons I can think of.
The first reason is morale. They cannot do right for doing wrong. If they come down hard on people for offences they are bullies. If they go easy on people they are accused of biases. I am a supporter of cops, but I have to say they also have sort of brought this on themselves. You are either law enforcement with a drive for public safety or you are a social services department with a role in public safety. Oh also you should never be dealing with this culture of none criminal offences such as hurt feelings online etc.
Whatever though the cops are beleaguered and I think feel they have no way of doing anything right without being seen as the villain. This can mean the cops are less effective, less likely to be diligent out and about and the criminals know it.
The second reason is they look weak. 95 percent of criminals are male. Male criminals tend to be impulsive. Male criminals tend to see manliness as a key thing in their everyday. They often delude themselves of their place in this primal masculinity. The toughest people I have met have been none criminals like SAS lunatics, who by the way I am glad are on our side. Really tough criminals don’t bother with your house or mine. They are off dealing big loads of drugs etc.
What we have are lowlife would be hard men. Nothing puts them off more than big coppers who may just turn up and sling them in a prisoner van. They do not respect dainty graduates however much they have CS spray and Tasers at their disposal.
The third reason the coppers look weak is the background of many. Yes you might have more cerebral coppers than in my day but the criminals we dealt with on the street are of the street. You don’t need a degree in media studies to out think them. What you do need is to have grown up with them. This point is a generalisation I accept. There are many working class people who go to university and then join the cops. From what I can see though a huge number are not what street crime prevention needs.
The police service has been diluted from the ‘soldier’ type copper of years ago to those that see it as a career path. Also the number of actual coppers there are has been further diluted by the introduction of PCSO ( police support officer). This branch do not have the training nor the powers. The police should be a switched on, working class centred professional service. It should not have retreated into special units behind computers looking at all aspects of peoples lives. It should be capable, ready and on the streets.
Another reason we might see a rise in crime in the home is that certain groups have an entitled view of their right to the property of others. Constantly groups are being told that in effect they are the victims. They are told the system and the people in it owe them for crimes that are in the mists of time. In addition, the authorities feel rather scared to act and this encourages the bad among these groups.
When it comes to entitlement it cuts the other way. We as a society seem to think safety and affluence are a right. That no-one has the right to hurt us or take our stuff. I agree but then you don’t have to worry about the like of me. I agree but I still will take precautions in case others don’t share my values.
Detection Rates Show We in the UK are in Trouble.
Since 2015 the amount of crimes that are investigated and actually lead to a suspect being charged has halved. It now stands (as of 2019) at 7 percent. I mean criminals are not daft as in moronic. So every 100 reported crimes has only 7 solved.
I have no reason to think that the craziness of 2020 has allowed the cops to improve on that. ( BBC reference)
A note for those not in the know crime stats in the UK are split between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Those above are for the largest area, England and Wales.
I have just been looking for some stats that I saw a little while ago. It said that the detection rate for the offence of murder in the UK was in the 60s percent. I cannot find it. However, it is low and that is for murder when police resources almost know no bounds.
Another important factor is the court system hardly encourages people to be in fear of committing crime.
Your safety in the home depends largely on you.
What Can We Do in the UK to Combat the Threat in and Around Our Homes
A lot of this is the old stuff but with a difference. If you live in a home and can fight then the chances are no-one is coming in. They will have seen you out and about. Criminals know who is who as I was reminded recently in my neighbourhood. If you are an active, physically capable person they will know this. Your house will have signs of your personality. These lowlife are cunning and streetwise mostly they can almost smell strength.
If you are honest and think ‘I couldn’t fight’ then use your locks at all times. Do not open the door unless you know the person knocking and maybe look at beefing up the security of your home.
I will do a more in depth piece on improving home security and link it to here. For now roughly follow these ideas:
All exterior doors should have two locking points at least. Most modern doors have this built in. The extra lock steadies the door in the frame so that kicking it in is harder. It takes seconds to kick a door through that has only one lock. I have done it many times legitimately. Hit it right and not only can the door spring inward it can come clean off.
Good quality plastic ‘double glazed’ doors normally have a system that means that when you lock it up it engages all around the frame. Check this if you have these doors. Also be careful of locking this sort of system. I have noticed if you don’t lift the handle all the way up it sometimes can make you think the door is secure when it isn’t.
Rear windows should have locks and use them and a little insider tip is if you have any that are at the rear or out of sight put Venetian blinds on them. Burglars hate them, they are noisy and tangle around them. They have to rip them down to get them out of the way or have a mate hold them up. They are a lot of trouble.
Get lighting that will switch on if someone prowls around the darker areas of your property outside. By all means put in an alarm but make sure you have an alarm box outside to declare its presence. Also as the years go on get a window cleaner to give it a wipe over so it looks like it works.
The main point is use what you have. Lock up in the morning, afternoon and evening. Only allow people you know to gain access.
Our country has become rather entitled. We feel we are entitled to safety. I am not even going to bother arguing. All I know is even if this entitlement is ethically correct the scumbags don’t believe you are entitled to anything. They believe that if the target is weak they are right to take advantage of the situation.
Cheers
Tim
