Crime: A Tale of Two Cities. When "The Wire" gained popularity in Great Britain, we were contacted by a London-based journalist who proposed a job swap. Mark Hughes, a crime reporter with The Independent, a national newspaper in the United Kingdom, wanted to come to Baltimore to see if the city’s police officers, drug dealers, prosecutors and politicians bore any resemblance to those on show. We agreed to complete the exchange by sending our police reporter, Justin Fenton, to London to compare crime trends. [more inside]
posted by HumanComplex
on Nov 12, 2009 -
30 comments
Gun crime on the streets of London? It's not new. Here's a tale of robbery, murder, revolution, and
Churchill in a topper. First, the
Tottenham Outrage, a factory robbery resulting in two murders, 27 injuries, and a bizarre chase. The villains are Latvian anarchists, a group who are trying to finance their revolutionary aims through crime. The next year, a plan to
tunnel into a jewelers is botched, and attempted burglary becomes the
Houndsditch Murders . The police investigate, and on locating the gang,
The Siege of Sidney Street begins. The army is called in, and the
Home Secretary pops by and assumes control.
After much shooting, a fire breaks out, and two men burn to death. But neither of them is the mysterious gang leader, Peter the Painter, and the five later tried are all acquitted. Churchill, however, is guilty of
showing off a bit.
posted by liquidindian
on Jun 18, 2007 -
19 comments
Jack the Ripper: the most complete online resource. A wealth of information, from scanned letters purportedly sent by the killer, to contemporary police reports, to recent scholarship and discussion, articles about Victorian London, social history, and dissertations. To my mind the most interesting of all are the detailed
biographies of the victims, which give a glimpse of the difficult life experienced by working-class Londoners, especially women, during the mid 19th century.
Note: The site has been mentioned here before, but only in the context of two discussions about Patricia Cornwell's book claiming that the murders were committed by artist Walter Sickert (
1,
2). Some images NSFW.
posted by jokeefe
on Nov 11, 2004 -
16 comments
NDb -(60% x Nc/Nt +40% x Dc/Dt) x 17,585 "Mathematicians called in by the Metropolitan Police think they have worked out the best way to beat crime in the capital."
Are there any UK mathematician/cops out there that know what the variables actually are?
posted by badstone
on Jan 17, 2002 -
8 comments
