"Savage, unprovoked attack"

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As in local news crime reporting - somebody is invariably minding their own business in a pub, taxi rank, chip shop etc. when they get set upon by multiple bat-wielding thugs in an invariably 'savage, unprovoked attack'. The frequency of these stories paints a pretty unpleasant picture of armies of savage thugs inflicting unprovoked attacks on innocent bystanders, yet when I mentioned this to somebody (who's lived in the area far longer than me), they said "Oh, none of those incidents are like the way they write it - in most cases the victim knows full well who did it, but it's usually a drug thing or they don't want to grass on friends or relations so they just tell the cops 'No idea, I was just minding my own business'" Reassuring for anyone who wants to leave their house, yet is it true? Or are there just lots of people who tend to go off for no reason? (Of course, when dealing with drunk and touchy people [i.e. most males] 'provocation' is where one finds it]

― dave q, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(Question behind question of course is how do media portrayals of social problems in your area compare to your vision of the place? Some people claim that the problems are blown out of all proportion while others say that they're being covered up, which is more prevalent?)

― dave q, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i live like 26 yards from clapton's "murder mile", and have done for nearly ten years: i have NEVER seen a single instance of genuine violence, and have been involved in just two "incidents"

in one two drunk charvers threw a binbag at me for i don't know why (not looking like them, possibly) and in another a 10-yr- girl cycling on the pavement got caught on my backpack as she passed and went flying. She was unhurt, I was upset and a bit cross — I hate cycling on the pavement, though usually it's adults that piss me off — and when i shut up she called me a "pervert"

― mark s, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What's a charver?

― alext, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i live like 26 yards from clapton's "murder mile", and have done for nearly ten years: i have NEVER seen a single instance of genuine violence, and have been involved in just two "incidents"

Mark, this is why is it called the murder mile and not the murder mile and 26 yards. These things are very exact.

― N., Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Reassuring for anyone who wants to leave their house"

I think it might be reassuring for the guy who got beat because now nobody's coming after his rat ass for getting them in trouble, but to everyone not involved with drugs or shady associates, they now think there might actually be random gangs of unprovoked savage violence distributors and therefore *not* want to leave their house ever again.

― Stuart, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

no what mark s means is that there is an ill-lit skip 26 yards away from his gaff and someone chucked away a copy of eric clapton live at the albert hall what has got the song murder mile on it and no one's picked it up these last 20 years and mark s can't take it in becos then he would have to file it in between his eugene chadbourne and lol coxhill records and it would look unbecoming.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Question behind question behind question: how does Dave Q's actual violence compare to the ILx representation of his violence?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As perp or victim?

― dave q, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

As perp, I think - or are they part of a single cycle of terror??

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Representations are often grotesquely inaccurate. Some older types like me will remember that St Paul's in Bristol was the site of one of the first and biggest of the riots in 1981 (I think it was). The papers presented it as black youths being their trouble-making selves. I knew a bit more about what went on...

The police had been acting in provocative, clearly racist ways to young black people for ages. Every time there was a new gathering place, the police would close it down. The latest was the Black & White Cafe, and everyone knew it would come soon. So one day the police show up to do a spot check on this little cafe. I believe it was 48 police with about a dozen dogs. Most of them must have had to stay outside, because there wasn't enough room for them inside. They found cause to close it down: the owner lived in a flat upstairs, and had one and a half bottles of licquor in the flat, so it was closed down for selling alcohol without a licence. The police were very pleased with themselves, and it somehow kicked off from there.

Before I get jumped on, I am not saying that violence is good and I encourage rioting: I am saying that there was a lot of back story that never made the papers. Also, St Paul's then had a terrible image: I walked through it regularly between 11pm and 2am, back from a friend's place, and the only slightly out of the ordinary thing that ever happened was people offering to sell me drugs.

― Martin Skidmore, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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