First they came for the Muslims, then they came for the Polish, then they came from the Romanians...'Crime by migrants soars by 530%', shouts the subheading on today's front page. A claim that is quickly withdrawn in the article's second sentence/paragraph with this:
Since Romania joined the European Union a year ago, the number of crimes committed here by that country’s nationals has risen by 530 per cent.So it's only Romanian migrants. Not migrants in general.
That fact doesn't stop the paper saying on its website's 'Have your say' question 'Should migrants who commit crime be kicked out of Britain?' (gee, I wonder if the Express readers are going to say no?):
FOLLOWING the rescue of ten Romanian child slaves from homes in Slough, it emerged that migrant crime has soared by 530 per cent.I am suspicious of these figures as there is no source given for them, and we don't know the actual numbers. Back in 'More people want to MURDER us in our BEDS!' I covered how the Mail used Romanian crime in London to scaremonger about immigration. The rise there was over 530%. It could be that the 530% figure represents the nationwide rise, but I suspect we're only talking about Slough here.
Seriously, how long before the paper openly supports the BNP?
*UPDATE* Thanks to Obsolete in the comments for pointing out the article does say the figures are from the whole of Britain. And for linking to the latest actual crime figures from the BCS and recorded crime in his own excellent post on the subject, which is more than worth a read.
Using those, we can see than in the last six months, 2,540,100 crimes were reported in Britain. The 922 crimes the Express is screaming about represents about 0.04% of total crime. That's around one in every 2,755. The actual 530% rise represents around 0.03% of total crime, or one in every 3,273.
That's worthy of a front page headline.
3 comments:
I suspect the figures behind the 530% are these, as noted in the Grauniad article:
Allen said that between April and December 2006, 12 Romanian nationals were arrested for theft. A year later that number was 214.
Which on its own doesn't really prove anything other than the fact that it was always likely that the figures would go up when they could start applying for jobs here; being arrested for theft hardly means that all those have either been charged, or indeed, were pickpockets. It doubtless includes those that have shoplifted and stolen from work as well.
Actually the Express does give the figures towards the end:
Before the eastern European country joined the EU, its nationals were associated with 146 crimes over six months in Britain.
A year after it joined – over a second six-month period – that figure leapt to 922, a 530 per cent rise.
Which is again disingenuous, as the figures in the Guardian are far more authoritative seeing as we're talking about theft here, not all the other crimes in the sample.
Cheers for that. I was right to be suspicious of the figures but for the wrong reasons.
I'd still like to know the source for the figures though.
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