Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier writes for the Standard.
THIS WEEK’S horrific events will not have gone unnoticed.
Few can imagine the horror of being stuck on a high-speed train with a knife-wielding attacker stabbing passengers.
But at the heart of this weekend’s tragedy is a story of extraordinary bravery by the train ticket collector, who did his best, at huge personal risk and extensive injury, to protect other passengers.
And the train driver, who had the intelligence to get his train moved to a slow track so it could stop at the next available station, where police and ambulance services dealt with the knifeman and helped wounded passengers.
There will be inevitable questions about how this crime was allowed to happen.
But the reality is that, in a population of 65million people, there will be people who will attack their fellow humans.
There is no way that we can eliminate risk completely from our society.
But these acts of heroism, in an appalling situation, add contrast to the low-level crime that goes on the whole time.
People don’t feel safe.
They see the endless videos of thugs wholesale shoplifting from local shops.
There is an industry set up around ‘phone snatching’.
Criminals don’t care about authority.
A colleague of mine recently had his‘phone snatched in front of a police officer carrying a sub-machine gun.
And knife carrying goes on the whole time, our society getting confused about stop-and-search priorities that the police need to tackle the criminals.
New York used to be one of the most dangerous cities to visit.
But a few decades ago, the mayor had a zero tolerance approach to crime.
Small, random acts of vandalism were severely and immediately punished.
After a few years, criminals knew they would be banged to rights for any crime so they stopped.
Maybe this approach would work here?
Of course, we won’t know until we try.
But whatever is tried, I know people would like to see something done about this.
People just don’t feel safe.
