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Acid attacks in the UK are becoming increasingly common. The reason is simple but the timing isn't. In the UK, guns are generally illegal and gun ownership is more of a touchy subject than in the US. I understand that criminals with guns receive a mandatory five year prison sentence. Strict gun control has pushed most criminals to knives. However, after mandatory sentences for knife ownership, criminals are now choosing to injure victims with acid.
Although gun and knife injuries may require extensive rehabilitation, partial recovery from acid attack may be more costly. One victim required 40 operations and continues to receive frequent, lifelong surgery to alleviate complications such as scar tissue on windpipe.
Attackers and victims have a wide variety of backgrounds. In a very English manner, two attackers who were obviously paid, said sorry before attacking one victim. One attacker was a very minor celebrity before and after attacking people in a nightclub and there have been numerous attacks in Scotland. Some incidents are "honor" attacks among immigrants who, for whatever reason, fail to assimilate. However, there has been an increase in acid attacks among ethnic minorities in East London.
The BBC reports that:
The Met Police is "seeing some links" between criminal gangs and the recent spike in acid attacks in London, a senior officer has said.
Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said the force was "seeing a move across" to gang members using acid and corrosive fluids in attacks.
But he cautioned evidence was limited as "it's a small data set".
On Monday, MPs debated measures, including tougher sentences, for attacks involving corrosive substances.
The government has also proposed classifying such substances as dangerous weapons.
The deputy commissioner supported efforts to tackle the issue, saying some of the substances are "not even defined by law".
"The impact this sort of attack has on people is extraordinary," he said.
"Many of us have been unfortunate to see quite a bit in our services but acid attacks are really extraordinary and strike at something quite horrific in people's psyche."
Although many incidences are inter-gang attacks (or a brief campaign against food delivery), there are also incidences where acid attack occurs in conjunction with robbery. One pernicious trend is around moped and scooters which are relatively cheap, relatively fast and cut through traffic. They are relatively easy to steal and it is almost impossible to halt a theft in progress. Well, moped crime now occurs in conjunction with acid attack. Variants include using acid to steal a moped from a rider and using a moped to exit the scene of an acid attack.
London police now have 1000 anti-acid kits and every police car will carry 5 liters of water. Although this is useful for acid attacks against police, it does nothing to halt worsening injuries prior to emergency response. This is of particular concern when acceptable response time for emergency services is re-defined in response to failing targets. The most recent incident, which occurred within 100 metres of the local fire department, incurred a 20 minute response from police.
Although there is a strong political reaction that something must be done, these incidences overshadow a police pursuit death in the vicinity which has similarities to a death in 2011 which sparked rioting in multiple English cities.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:22PM (8 children)
That's an odd way of characterizing the Sandy Hook cretin. His mother didn't buy the weapons for him. She bought them for herself. He KILLED HIS OWN MOTHER to get her weapons. That, right there,ranks among the lowest of the depths of depravity. Killing a couple dozen little children isn't any worse than killing your own mother.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:59PM
it's right on the label. taking our "meds" may make you a violent raving looney. attack big pharma's officers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @09:08AM (6 children)
Runaway, runaway! Must you persist in being so uninformed? I almost said, "stupid", but I didn't, but now I have reconsidered, so why must you be so stupid? The mother bought the guns for her son, since he was a minor, so that by taking up shooting sports he might not be quite so insane as he was, what with his relation to his father. This is the same Ammosexual Therapy that that American Sniper dude tried to do on the fellow vet with something beyond PTSD. In both cases it proved fatal to the attempted therapist, and in the Sandy Hook incident, to a bunch of innocent children as well.
So I hope you do not have criminal background that precludes you from buying weapons, and I can only hope that you do not find some crazy that you think you can straighten out by teaching them the fine art of target shooting. But if you don't, and if you do, well, Second Amendment, Bro!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 28 2017, @05:52PM (5 children)
I don't know where you get your "facts". Mother was into shooting. She also introduced her son to shooting. She did NOT buy the guns "for her son" as you imply. In the final weeks of her life, Mother was actually considering having the boy institutionalized, because he was getting to be to much to handle. The kid acted when he did, apparently because he felt betrayed by Mother, as well as fearing his loss of freedom. As near as I recall from all the stories, not one of those weapons "belonged to" the kid.
You'll need citations to make me even consider your narrative.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 28 2017, @11:22PM (4 children)
Yes, she did, you uninformed, barely literate, goat-roping buffoon! Just because you think you know something, Runaway, that does not make it so. You can be, have been, and often are, just plain wrong. Remember the whole "population of China" thing? The "Trump born in Bahamas" incident? The whole "Muslim forced-conversion" controversy? So again, you are wrong.
I hear that Ginkgo-biloba is good for preventing memory loss in the later years. But citations are better.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 28 2017, @11:29PM (3 children)
"But citations are better."
Correct - and you obviously have none.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 29 2017, @12:45AM (2 children)
My point is, neither do you? Sorry to have to beat you over the head with this, Runaway, but that is evidently the only way you learn, in those rare instances when you learn. But it was your claim originally, the burden of proof is on you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 29 2017, @06:31AM
The parent AC has a point, Runaway. Cite your sources for this. I think you may be wrong.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday August 03 2017, @10:24AM
How about one of you quit whining and actually post a citation?
Looks [nytimes.com] to me [breitbart.com] like all [slate.com] the guns used in the Sandy Hook shooting were stolen from the shooter's mother, herself murdered with one of her own rifles.