- This topic has 1 reply, 4 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi Scott,
I am a UK 57 year old male ex serviceman (RAF) who has been reading your great site daily for a couple of years. The fascinating mix of interesting, adventurous characters on the forum is compulsive reading and CR is on my shortlist as an affordable retirement area. I am hardly of the facebook generation but a recent incident led me to choose it as a vehicle for getting an important message out to the local population.Your description of a pleasant evening with friends pretty much sums up how we spent a Saturday night on the 25 April. Returning home at 10.30pm we turned a corner and found ourselves surrounded by about 15 teenagers. My wife was verbally abused and spat at; I was physically assaulted, left semi-conscious with a fractured eye socket. The police were called and we spent 30 mins driving round to identify the assailants. They had disappeared. When I suggested we review CCTV recordings the driver stated the facility wasn’t manned and rarely was. He said the Cotswold District Council were responsible for the system.
By Monday (doped up on painkillers) I was feeling utterly powerless, so decided to priority mail the faceless “crime reduction team” at the council for answers. 48 hrs later no response. I looked at facebook and thought it was the best medium to use in a campaign. I set up an identity “Closedcircuit Cirencester” including a photograph of my injury on the profile and a summary of the incident. Then I mailed the local newspaper. http://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/search/4328371.Resident_mounts_Facebook_campaign_about_lack_of_CCTV/
Things started to happen.
The usual woolly political excuses “crime is reducing, the town is as safe as ever etc” The truth was the CCTV contract had been falling apart since Jan 2008 and had not been renewed. Individuals and retailers were contacting me with their stories of a lawless town with teenage thugs running wild. Then 2 months later another assault resulting in a death of a 25 year old. This may not be anything new in a city but in a small picturesque, farming community town (pop 19,000), it was the first occurrence of its kind in decades.
A facebook friend? advised me to start a “cause” under the auspices of facebook parallel to my profile – this attracted 270 more. As I write, total supporters are about 1000 including signatures on petitions that I have placed at venues around town.
This I guess is a snapshot of life in the UK at the moment and its going to get worse.
The local politicians are now taking notice and I thank Facebook for the providing the medium.
Steve.
British crime is a whole different ball game and British soccer hooligans?
I mean who else has this kind of “talent” eh?
Perhaps if the British public had refused to give up their guns to the authorities, this situation would not have deteriorated to where it is today?
Remembering my transition from the UK to New York City, to begin with I felt safer having a few pints with friends in a pub in NYC where the chances of getting in a fight were lower because there were far fewer British ‘nutters’ and their ‘mates’ throwing back the 10-15 pints of beer as fast as they could before closing time…
Having said that, I remember one evening well in an Irish pub on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on St. Patrick’s Day when a tall gentleman followed me into the bathroom, pulled out his gun and told me that my accent wasn’t welcome here…
It was one of the very few occasions in my life where I have left a good pint of ale unfinished.
Scott Oliver – A Brit & The Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comHi Steve
I am in the UK and same age as you.
I have lived in Cornwall for the past 15 years and we have few problems here BUT in general things in the UK are in a poor and deteriorating state, as if you didnt know, I am very sorry to hear your story and hope you recover quickly.I am just about to sell up here and move at least part time to CR so you can PM me any questions etc if you wish. All being well I should be in CR in September.
also hi Scott!
Rich
And with the username of Potoo – Is it safe to assume that you are a twitcher? A bird watcher?
Scott Oliver
Hi Scott
yes the Great Potoo lolsaw one in Gandoco reserve weird critter lol
Lets hope the house all goes through at end August all looking good at the moment so it will be full steam ahead to CR for at least 3 months to start with, UK for Xmas and then back again.
W e are very poor though and with these crap interest rates will have to see how things go, a lot of number crunching required lol
house is your build going?
Rich
As an American, your experience in the UK was informative. My wife and I plan on visiting the UK in the future. The american news media seldom provides complete world news, including CNN. I am currently a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There is really no gun control law in Pennsylvania, other than you can only buy one gun a month. You also do not need a permit to own a gun. However, the insanity is that you do need a gun permit to carry a concealed weapon. We have about 3 to 4 murders a day, and almost everyone carries a gun, with nonfatal shootings dailey. As a former combat veteran in the U.S. Army, Vietnam was safer than many parts of the U.S. In four years, my wife and I will be relocating to CR, to depart from the wild, wild west mentality here in the U.S.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
