CRIME IN SCOTLAND - DRINK, DRUGS, KNIVES & NEGLECTED KIDS

Scotland's Deputy Chief Medical Officer said in 2000, "What is needed is a culture change in Scotland...we need to make violence fueled by alcohol misuse something which is socially unacceptable..."

"Scotland's First Minister Henry McLeish... identified tackling the violent side of Scotland's culture as a top priority," according to Scotland on Sunday 24/12/00.

Official figures released in December 2000 showed violent crime had risen by one third. (Scotland on Sunday 24/12/00)

Henry McLeish said,"There is a violence to the Scottish character that worries me. There's a yob culture- it's bad manners, it's ignorance, it's thuggery, it's violence..." (Scotland on Sunday 24/12/00)

Is a culture of knives, drugs, drunkeness and nasty videos the culture of parts of Britain today?

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Civilised enclaves still exist!

These are found mainly in the NORTH of Scotland (only 1 homicide in 1999)

and in FIFE (only 1 homicide in 1999).

DUNDEE only had 2 homicides.

Dumfries and Galloway 3.

Homicides in Strathclyde 1997 - 59
1999 - 82

Homicides in Lothian & Borders 1996 - 9
1999 - 17

Homicides in Glasgow 1996 - 24
1999 - 35

In Westminster, between 1997 and 1999, there were 29 murders.

Murders committed by 18-25 year-old men in Scotland rank next only to the USA in a survey of the developed world. (Sunday Times 26/3/00).

Cornell University professor James Garbarino commented that Scotland's young men react to perceived slights with unreasonable fury. (Sunday Times 26/3/00).

Joan McAlpine in an article "Saving our sons from taking up a life of crime" suggested that the number of Scottish lads turning to violence was increasing. She wrote, "bullying 8 year-olds grow into aggressive 18 year-olds. But this is not inevitable. We can intervene by being loving parents." The article suggests that too many Scots parents abuse alcohol and drugs.

The Inverclyde Forum About Drugs has issued a league table relating to heroin use. Top of the league come: Greenock, Port Glasgow, Gourock, Aberdeen, Glasgow, and West Dumbartonshire.

At the bottom of the league come places like Dundee.

Heroin addicts are often unemployed and yet spend £22,000 a year on buying heroin. The addicts tend to resort to theft to gain the money to feed their habit.

In Scotland, one in three schoolboys carries a knife. In some areas, almost every kid is armed.

In one Scottish tourist village, X went straight to the police when teenagers with knives demanded money. The police took one knife off a teenager, but took no further action. In the local park the kids continue to carry knives and baseball bats and continue to sell drugs. Needles are a major hazard.

The Dumfries Courier 8/12/00 reported in its editorial: "there is an ever present fear of violence and the 'yob culture' and it is not simply confined to the most deprived council estates in inner cities."

In Stirling a man caught a 10-year-old throwing stones at windows. The man hauled the kid into his girlfriend's house to tell him off. The man was fined £250 (Daily Record 7/12/00)

In Lanarkshire a family passed on information to the police about drug dealing in Bellshill. Their son, 12, was assaulted by older teens. Their daughter, 9, was threatened with rape. A DRUGS LYNCH MOB THEN DROVE THE FAMILY FROM THEIR HOME. (Daily Record 6/12/00)

Recently a Mr C was brutally stabbed to death. The two men responsible for the death walked free from court.The press accused the Crown Office of incompetence or worse.

The Glasgow Herald reported, "The trial of 3 men accused of assault was haulted because a signature was missing from the charge sheet..."

3 trials involving drugs charges collapsed because of search warrant blunders.

According to the Daily Record 7/12/00, "hour by hour, day and night, the emaciated drug addicts file into...239 Bellrock Street, Cranhill." It is there that JM (The record gives his name) sells heroin to children aged 12 and 13. On 7/12/00 alone, the Daily record named and shamed 30 drug deale rs. Each day, more names appeared.

In the year 2000 in Scotland, 340 people died from drugs (and over 1000 from alcohol).

Andrew was aged 13 when he died after taking 2 ecstasy pills. The teenage son of his mum's partner died after taking morphine.

And what is Scotland's second newest MP going to say about all this? John Robertson is the MP for Anniesland! On 6 december 2000, his daughter Laura was "being investigated by the drugs squad after dealing ecstasy" (Daily Record 7/12/00). It is alleged that Laura Robertson sells ecstasy at Bonkers nightclub in Glasgow.

In 1999, a record-breaking 14,183 children were referred to the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration for SERIOUS NEGLECT compared with 9245 in 1998 - a rise of more than 50%.

In 1997 the figure was 4671.

Drugs and alcohol and knives are increasingly involved in the murders of children. Is the culture in parts of Scotland one that would shock many visitors from the Third World?