Crime

[fpb]

The reaction of London's emergency services to the four bombs exploded across its public transport system last July, and to the four more attempted two weeks later, struck everyone as exemplary. While the Health Service dealt swiftly and efficiently with the wounded, the police, starting from total ignorance about causes and suspects, and in spite

Comments

[gunderpants]

The policy here is that only police officers and farmers in remote areas (plagued by wild pigs and crocodiles) are entitled to arms: after Port Arthur, the Government did a massive buy-back of all non-essential weapons. I remember the outcry from the Americans who thought were were OMGALLGOINGTOBESHOTINOURBEDS.

That said, the criminal underworld here still have their guns, as evident by the gangland murders in Melbourne, and for that reason alone I would understand the police here needing their guns.

At any rate, our police are more content to just cause internal bleeding by other means.

[fpb]

So are ours. According to the stories that come out of Stoke Newington nick...

By the way,

[fpb]

Wild pigs are a danger in the Australian outback? I heard about dingoes and crocs, of course, but I had not realized that feral pigs were so dangerous. Guess they aren't touristy enough. Here in Italy, the wild boars are a menace, and they are subject to regular culls by National Park authorities.

Re: By the way,

[gunderpants]

They're a menace in that they do a hell of a lot of damage to the ecosystem with their trotters: Australian soil, in particular around waterholes and rivers, is so easily degraded by hoofed animals like cattle and pigs. This, in addition to the fact that they actively seek out and kill young lambs and other animals, will attack a human if provoked (and those tusks can disembowel) and they eat any crops or native plants that get in their way, make them a particular menace. Hence why pig-shooting is quite the leisure activity out in the sticks.

Re: By the way,

[fpb]

I see. I did not know that, but I am not surprised. Of course in Australia pigs, like rabbits, would have no natural predators, and they are intelligent and greedy animals. Would you believe that someone has reintroduced wild boars into England, where they ahad been extinct?

Re: By the way,

[gunderpants]

That sounds like a biological introduction on the same level of stupid as the introduction of cane toads into QLD to combat beetles eating sugar cane crops.

Re: By the way,

[fpb]

It's the same as with wallabies and minks - they escaped from a farm. Actually, the boars do not make nearly as much damage as the minks, who have wrought havoc with the native population on English riverbanks.

Re: By the way,

[gunderpants]

I want a pet mink.