They're not "Richard Garside's statistics." They're collected in two ways--see early paragraph-- and published by the Home Office. http:// www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/crime-stats-2008.
I'm just pointing out that while crime in Britain is falling, perception that crime is on the rise is being fanned by the public's normal interest in horror stories. Nothing new about this. I grew up with newspaper stories about deadly knife fights involving: teddy boys, greasers, skinheads, punks... And it's always the same story-- an innocent who was on his way to a lawful activity gets killed by a gang member fresh from hades. Here is an earlier round the tale, describing reactions to the murder of John Beckley on Clapham Common, which resulted in the "Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act of 1959." This account says that Beckley was deeply involved; others say that he got off a bus in the wrong place at the wrong time.
http://everything2.com/e2node/Flick%2520knife David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon On Aug 9, 2008, at 11:59 AM, Lawrence Helm wrote:
It doesn’t sound as though the British are taking comfort in Richard Garside’s statistics: http://disarmingbritain.wordpress.com/ 2008/07/25/knife-crime-searches-on-the-up/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4269818.ece Lawrence
