>>We've got the killers in both cases.<<

Naughty, naughty. The system isn't that fast. Not that a juror's likely to see it, or be influenced, but to be strictly accurate, people have been charged.

CW wrote: "All the knife attacks (about which there is a moral panic) have been youth on youth and mainly in places that no tourist would ever go."

Mainly.

Herself and I were in a cafe on Oxford Street a couple of weeks back when we saw and heard police cars and ambulances racing by. A young man had just been killed in a stabbing incident a little further along the street. It did qualify as youth on youth. I did not feel that I was in an unsafe place. One should make sensible assessments of dangers, not panicky ones.

This story is from Paris but it could be anywhere.

This was on blvd of Sebasopol near rue du Rivoli. My rental car was parked in front of a game arcade, which was full of people.

After having a meal, I walked towards the car. My companion wanted to take his pipe from the car, which he took and we kept walking. But he didn't notice that the police were on the sidewalk and there's a body covered with a black sheet. Lots of blood on the sidewalk, although they weren't trying to clean the sidewalk yet.

I kept on walking, with my friends wife. The friend caught with me a few yards further towards the rue du Rivoli.

Of course we talked about the dead body, etc. but we went to Zimmer's. This is a nice cafe near Chatelet.

After a hot chocolate, we returned to the car again. The body was gone, the police were gone, the blood was removed, the arcade was still full of people, and my window in my car is broken. The radio was stolen and it damaged the car a lot to remove this radio.

The point is that life keeps rolling along in big cities. Whether it's London or Paris or even Zurich, keep your eyes opened.

Blackduff

Ah yes the Oxford St stabbing - more youth on youth bollocks about "respect". All highly unlikely to happen again in the same place. Most of these youths won't leave their "ends" (what we used to call our "manors") and many of them have never even crossed the Thames.

My most bloody experience occured outside the Battersea Arts Centre where the Hell's Angels murdered two members of a rival gang - so it can happen anywhere (and I was just a passer by).

But in general when it comes to violence London is very safe. It does have a serious problem with aquisitive crime though and people should keep an eye on theit kit.