Are You Turning A Blind Eye To Crime?

Is society starting to ignore such problems rather than tackling them?

Lately I have been hearing a lot of news about crimes in the community. These have ranged from bike thefts to bin fires and muggings to vandalism. Many have occurred in my local area, with a stabbing right on my doorstep, just at the entrance to my street.

As crime seems to rear its ugly head more and more locally, I start to wonder why nobody is doing anything about it.

Well, perhaps that is a simplification of things. But there have definitely been instances where crimes have happened in broad daylight, with many citizens watching events unfold like unassuming bystanders.

In one instance a bulldozer knocked down the front wall of a local bank in order to extract the ATM machine and chug off with a box full of cash.

What amazed me about my local bank robbery was that it happened in the evening, next to a beer garden full of drinkers, who happily watched it happen, took videos of it and did nothing to stop it.

Whatever happened to community spirit?

This is a subject that comes up again and again. Society has changed and so have attitudes to crime. I wrote about the issue of communities becoming disconnected here:

It does feel as if many people would prefer to pull out a camera while witnessing a crime instead of working together to prevent or stop it from happening.

In the case of the bank machine theft, that small market town no longer had its own police station. It had been closed down in 2016 and turned into residential flats. The nearest station is now twenty minutes away and so the bulldozer gang had plenty of time to smash and run.

It is almost unimaginable to think that such a bazaar event could go unchallenged, in plain sight.

So many crimes, of varying scales, are being committed daily around the UK and are recorded for social media while onlookers essentially turn a blind eye to events.

Some things that concern me are:

• According to the ITV News, around a thousand thefts are happening in small convenience stores every day. These are taking place most often in local Co-op supermarkets where staff are feeling too scared to challenge aggressors (and incredibly anxious about being at work in the first place).
• Graffiti is popping up overnight and often spoiling important local landmarks. Sometimes random but increasingly political, these markings are scarring our high streets and beauty spots.
• Another common problem is petrol theft. Some thieves are driving into petrol stations, filling up their tanks and then speeding off without paying a penny. My friend observed someone trying to pretend he didn’t have his wallet with him and requesting to be able to go home and collect it, in good faith. Luckily, the attendant recognised this repeat offender and was able to report him, although he did still make off without paying. Hopefully the police tracked him down using his number plate.
• Another annoyance is when parents allow their kids to eat food taken from the supermarket shelves as they walk around collecting the rest of their shopping. Supermarket workers often find wrappers or discarded fruit stems littered around their stores as shoppers have ditched them, therefore avoiding having to pay for the goods that they or their kids have munched upon.

This list could go on for pages and there are so many examples of crimes which are happening daily, some small and others sizable.

To me, it seems that standards are slipping. The general public are less interested in petty crimes and are more willing to avert their eyes to daylight robbery.

In A Nutshell

With heightened fears about crime in the press, it startles me that so much of it happens in busy places. Society speaks out about the horror of crime, yet many people are keen to jump on the bandwagon of filming vandalism, theft and violent protests.

Being the stepson of a police officer, I am used to conversations about crime but am very aware of how less likely people are to intervene when something illegal happens these days. Gone are the days of citizen arrests and public interventions.

Yet there is some hope still to be had. I recently saw a report showing how a group of Tesco customers apprehended a thief as he attempted to drive away with a load of stolen bottles of alcohol. The community-minded shoppers worked as a team to corner him and hold him down until the police arrived.

I am not saying that being bold and assertive is always the best way to handle things, but it would be nice to think that if I was being assaulted someone would help me, rather than obnoxiously pulling out their phone and filming it for TikTok.

It would be interesting to know what other Medium readers think about this topic.

Is society becoming less protective of the law? Are we starting to turn a blind eye to crime instead of tackling it head on?