Crackdown on low-level crime aims to clean up neighbourhood

Murders, frauds and bank robberies occur in the UK just like anywhere else, but by and large they do not affect most citizens, who are more concerned about low-level misbehaviour in their neighbourhood.

I have friends who are reluctant to let their seven-year-old out to play because bike-riding teens have turned their street into a speedway. My own edge-of-the-city area hosts many students who think it is great fun to uproot estate agents’ signs on their way home from the pub at 1 am.

Fly-by-night contractors tip garbage where they think they will not be caught and it is difficult to find a public surface that is not smeared by graffiti.

Thus, a £160-million plan to crack down on anti-social behaviour, announced by the government last week, received immediate attention from the average citizen.

Promising a “zero tolerance” approach to offenders, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said people responsible for vandalism and graffiti offences would be made to repair the damage whilst wearing jump suits or high-visibility jackets so the public could see “justice is being done.”

Alternatively, offenders could be assigned other tasks which benefit their area, such as litter-picking or volunteering in charity shops.

One strand of the scheme is a promise to “address people causing a nuisance on the street.” This will no doubt delight my friends with the little girl, assuming police will now respond to their complaints, which they have not done in the past.

The headline-grabbing aspect of the crackdown is government’s vow to make possession of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, a criminal offence.

The substance, sold in metal canisters, is one of the most used drugs in the UK by 16 to 24-year-olds. It is known to heighten the mood of takers, making them giggly, but heavy use can lead to a vitamin deficiency that damages nerves in the spinal cord.

Government minister Michael Gove said, “We are doing this because if you walk through any urban park you will see these little silver canisters, which are evidence of people regarding public spaces as areas for drug taking.”

It so happens that I spotted a couple the day before writing this, a couple of inches long, glinting in the sun, not in a park but outside a city church.

Drug experts have opposed the government move, saying people would not stop using laughing gas and any ban would drive it into criminal hands.

A 27-year-old woman from Wales might disagree. She said taking too much laughing gas left her unable to walk and put her in hospital for six weeks.

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The charity is named “2 Wish Upon A Star” and it aims to help families after the sudden loss of a child.

Most people would think, “That’s a wonderful work,” but Stephanie Jones thought it would be just the sort of organisation she could defraud.

Claiming she had a PhD in sociology, Jones applied for work as a support coordinator and submitted 19 false invoices to the charity for £3,570 between 2021 and 2022.

But suspicions grew when she offered different versions of her story and she was finally accused of, and admitted, fraud.

Jones repaid the money, but a judge told her, “You are a chronic liar,” and jailed her for a year.

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Call them what you will – near deaths or out-of-the-body experiences – they do keep happening, the only argument being whether or not some kind of spirit world is involved.

Kevin Hill, aged 55, was being treated at the Royal Derby Hospital for a serious blood condition when his heart stopped.

He said, “I was separate from my body. I remember watching the doctors trying to save me. I knew I was bleeding and that it was serious.”

Trying to explain, he said, “It was like I was in the spirit realm. I was conscious of what was going on but I had so much peace. I knew I had died but I woke up alive and the bleeding had stopped. I knew it was not my time to die.”

Scientists blame various psychological and neurological factors for such dissociative experiences. Those who experience them may feel different.

Mr Hill is back home with his wife and in the final stages of recovery. He said, “The experience has made me refocus my priorities.”

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Two friends, both accountants, are in a bank when a gang of armed robbers bursts in. One gunman begins emptying the tills while another lines up the customers and begins relieving them of their valuables.

At that point, one of the accountants feels something shoved into his hand by his friend. “What’s this?” he asks. “It’s the fifty dollars I owe you,” the friend replies.

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Two statisticians go shooting. One fires at a bird but overshoots by five feet. The other fires and undershoots by five feet. Happily they slap high fives – “Got it!”

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