arkon

I've just seen on the news that there has been 22 drive by shootings so far this year in NSW! We are only a quarter through the year! What amazes me is that it has taken me 3 months to hear about all the shootings, Do the press just ignore stories like this? Back in the UK a drive by shooting will get airtime for weeks or months and then get regurgitated a year later, so that we are all reminded what a hell hole the UK is. Here it only gets a passing mention if your lucky. Does anyone know the stats on violent crime UK vs Oz per population? One of the reasons we wanted to come here was the belief that it was a safer place to start a family, more and more as the days go by I’m not so sure.

Wendy

Think again, crime in the UK is on the rise, of course it depends where abouts in the UK you are, just like it depends where abouts in Oz you are.

I can't find any comparison sites, and I don't think you can really compare the countries as the are nothing like each other, but here is a report from October last year http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/ncrime21.xml

The only way to ensure you don't run into any crime of any kind is to live on an island by yourself, of course then there will be other problems I'm sure

Amazulu

Crime is the same here as in the UK, ie nothing to be overly worried about.

moneypenny20

Did it say where they were? Would they be rival gangs in Sydney or similar. I would imagine you are far safer where you are than say in Sydney, but also as Wendy says not as safe as if you were on a desert island alone.

NSW is a huge area, we are a quarter of the way through the year, so we are talking roughly 90 odd for the year. In this day and age unfortunately, that doesn't sound too bad. Obviously in an ideal world, one would be too many, but I think an ideal world would be hell to live in on a day to day basis.

.

Grayling

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...7-1242,00.html

G

Wendy

Although it is worrying when things like this happen, you also have to remember that these people are playing with fire and as such are going to end up getting burnt !!

The police have at least recognised there is a problem, which is probably more than they would do here in the same situation

MikeStanton

Depends what you categorize as violent crime. Nationmaster provides some info. Here are links for UK http://www.nationmaster.com/country/uk/cri and Oz http://www.nationmaster.com/country/as/cri.

Hutch

Must be a full moon ...

moneypenny20

Hels

I was just wondering if Halloween had come early this year?

arkon

Thats the story! It wasn't so much the story that was so shocking as I'm used to stories like this back home, The shocker for me was 22 in 3 months with a relatively small population, and the fact you hardly ever hear they are happening, at that kind of level they should be on the news every 4 days.

moneypenny20

OK just read the report. So yes they are all in Sydney and presumably all gang related. Press probably get bored with writing about gangs killing each other. After all if they carry on long enough there will be no gangs left and Utopia will exist

arkon

I think your wrong on this, due to the much higher profile this kind of thing is given on the news back home and the fact that the police and politicians are more accountable, they are more likely to try and do something about it. Here by burying this kind of story and the poor standard of journalism I think the police are less likely to do something about it. Don’t get me wrong by the police accepting there is a problem is a step forward but I have little confidence they will actually turn their acknowledgement in to action.

arkon

Yes but does anyone remember a couple of years ago in the UK, all the hooha about a drive by that killed two girls that got caught in the crossfire? I don't mind the gangs killing each other it's just when they start spraying bullets around in the streets that gets me concerned.

moneypenny20

I do, it was terrible, but still relatively infrequent in the UK I think. There doesn't seem to be the huge gang culture (so far) in the UK as there is in USA and apparently Sydney. I wonder how much news the same stats would make in say LA or New York