Muggings – a serious and not uncommon crime. Almost everyone knows someone who has been mugged at some point. I can think of a number of people I know who have been mugged in the last couple of years. It’s a crime I would like to see less of – not that there are any I would like to see more, of course!
However, staging mock muggings is not the way to do it. Have you heard such a ludicrous idea of late? The rationale goes like this: people are unwilling to interfere in muggings because they either don’t care, don’t have the confidence to take a mugger on, don’t want to get hurt or are just plain British and assume it’s not their business to interfere. Thus, staged muggings could be, err, “performed(?)”, and the public’s reaction gauged. Right?
Hmm. Strange concept. I mean, what’s going to happen when no-one interferes? Will a good ol’ copper come out and lecture everyone about how they should have wrestled the mugger to the ground in a citizen’s arrest? Or how they could have taken a photograph or video for evidence (or, more likely to put up on YouTube a “happy-slap” viral)?
It’s just not going to work. People will take no notice. Why? Because next time, they’ll just think, “oh, it’s just some staged performance”. So they won’t interfere. The same goes for anyone who would have interefered – they’ll just think, “last time was all for nothing. It wasn’t even a proper mugging. I won’t bother this time.”
And you know what else? It’s the perfect excuse for any would-be mugger.
This ludicrous proposal was put forward by the charity Witness Confident. The charity launches today. I am more than happy to provide P.R. consultancy for the going rates (that’ll be daylight robbery, ahem!)
Tags: Fail