Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 06, 2013

When I was in England last year, I don’t recall seeing a constable sans a gun (it was while seeing a changing of the Buckingham Palace guards and she was on horseback and telling a foreign tourist child to get off the gate who was trying to get a better view).

Sad but true. There’s a video where two bobbies are being attacked by a rabid dog and they can’t do anything about it.

I once saw an episode of Cops set in England, and I was quite surprised by different it was; instead of running down suspects and forcing them to the ground, like on the regular US series, the officers were treating them with human dignity.:Why the big difference?

In Britain, we have strict gun control, and very few police officers carry guns. We also have a very low murder rate. Coincidence? Just compare murder rates in the USA with those in countries with gun controls.

Do you know that 96.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

The statistic was close. The actual rate is Great Britain has 4x the violent crime of the United States. That’s the result of taking guns away from law-abiding citizens so criminals have no fear. Look at the street beheading of a British soldier. You think that would have happened in Texas?

We don’t have rabies in the UK, so defence against a rabid dog is not an issue.

There have been disproportionately high numbers of innocent people killed by the few police that have been armed.

Fact check says comparison is almost impossible to make but worst case guesstimate is violent crime rate no more than 2x US one. http://blog.skepticallibertarian.com/2013/01/12/fact-checking-ben-swann-is-the-uk-really-5-times-more-violent-than-the-us/ if you want some evidence. Note – this guy is pro-gun. My gut feel is I don’t feel threatened here on the whole and certainly not by guns.

@Dan Singleton. It largely depends on how you define violent crime – it’s radically different between the US and UK so the two figures, side by side, are largely meaningless. I’d be interested to know where you got your data? Reassure me it’s not from the Daily Mail article based on a statement from the Conservative Party, when it was in opposition, and on the day it was due to give a speech on crime :)

As for the murder of Lee Rigby, what happened to him was disgusting and I have nothing but contempt for the killers, but I can’t help thinking that, for all we know, the same killers in Texas might well have been wielding an automatic rifle and killing a lot more people.

Well, according to the Bobby Manual, yes I know it does sound like a mexican pop star, when confronted with a rabid animal, one is cautioned to severely remind the animal of it’s manners

Oh, no not my Mum! Here, take my satchel-full of C4, my AK-47, and my Makarov PM, constable….And so it goes. Yes, more and more, the police in England are armed.

In 2010, gun deaths in the U.S. were 60% suicides, 50% of the total suicides that year. The person holding the gun is more danger to theirself than to others, generally speaking.

there Are plenty Of Countries Where The Citizens Are Unarmed, And The Bad Guys Run Wild. Mexico For Example. That Would Be Us.

The first thing that came to mind when Rat mentioned using pinching to subdue a criminal was thishttp://youtu.be/Gr82dZpCr48

I wonder how Goat would have answered that question?

You know in England if you commit a crime, the police don’t have a gun and you don’t have a gun. So if you commit a crime: “Stop! Or, or I’ll say stop again!” – Robin Williams

God, here we go.

way to perpetuate a stereotype to the moronic masses who don’t realize that the UK has a MUCH lower rate of gun violence than us. Maybe you need to sober up before you write these.

“Guns don’t kill people: people kill people.” But guns make it a sod of a lot easier.

It’s funny how they keep fussing about how the GUN violence is lower in the UK. Well DUH!! Nevermind all the OTHER violence! Yah, fine, maybe it’s not 5X, and maybe it’s not 4X, but everybody admits it’s AT LEAST TWICE the violent crime in the US!The DEA admitted in Congressional testimony that roughly HALF the gun violence in the US is due to the War on Drugs. That is, thugs shooting thugs!

And what if their mum is a latter-day Ma Barker?!?

MURICA!!!

all this talk of police and stuff reminds me of a youtube video where a midget gets arrested :P its so popular they made a song of it O_O

In mid May in the Manchester airport waiting to go through customs, watched two policemen nearby each armed with one of those big AK whatevers. Scene somehow didn’t look British.

Ah, you’re right, the video doesn’t say if the dog had rabies.

Still, the video is right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9UbNwS0dI

Rat is WRONG!!!! No pinching and tickling over there a Bobby socks . . . ☻

Yeah, but “violent” crime in Great Britain includes mocking the Queen…..

The usual jokes, often funnier than the strip that inspired them, are missing today. The guns and statistics discussion is interesting and also pretty respectful, considering the typical insults which attach to the subject of guns. I would have to say many of the statistics reported sound farfetched. We each believe the stories, rumors, and “facts” that support our own inclinations.

Agree completely, Rat.

LOL xxx

You’re all wrong. It’s “42”.

Approximately 65,000,000 people live in Great Britain.

It appears that whilst the level of violent crime is higher in the UK (the definitions of what is violent crime appear to differ than in the US) the likelihood of dying as a result of that violent crime is 10 times higher in the US. One example in the USa you can shoot and kill a person who is walking through your neighbourhood if you think they look suspicious, that would not be something which would happen in the UK

When I first saw this cartoon when I was a kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIolYYqSbKw I thought that was the most ridiculous and nonsensical (and completely impossible to happen IRL) a police officer could find himself in.

The sad reality is that, yes, this is the situation in England.

And when I passed a polarizing current through, the frog twitched, just as Dr. Galvani had written.

Stop! Or… we will stay ‘stop’ again!

Liberal gun control I guess. :) No wonder the UK has one of the highest crime rates in the world.

I notice the objective analysis Strod refers to concludes the U.K. is ranked 3rd in the world in total crime victims as a percentage of the population.

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/United-Kingdom/United-States/Crime

The Politifact article says “For England and Wales… This produced a rate of 775 violent crimes per 100,000 people… For the United States, we used the FBI’s four standard categories for violent crime that Bier cited. We came up with a rate of 383 violent crimes per 100,000 people.”

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jun/24/blog-posting/social-media-post-says-uk-has-far-higher-violent-c/

Yes, there need to be more law-abiding citizens who are allowed to carry. I’m glad AZ allows concealed carry, but even in IL homeowners have their guns ready. (and don’t call out that nut-case who stole his mother’s gun). I have always kept mine in a manner that it is ready but no one else can use it.

There are very few people who own guns, so there are even fewer people with guns threatening to kill people. Just compare the murder rates, nuff said.

There are police and there are police. Different departments, and even different precincts in the same department, vary widely as to how police use force in the US. We also have more than one law enforcement agency in any given area—city, county, state. Where I live, the state highway patrol gives the tickets on surface streets as well as freeways, the Sheriff’s deputies do community outreach and make arrests. There’s no way to generalize about law enforcement in the US.

In the part of LA County where I live, the Sheriff’s deputies have a good relationship with the multi-ethnic, multi-income community. In other parts, there are constant complaints. Even though a lot of the departments train at the LAPD or Sheriff’s academies, some allow their cops to bully and beat people, others don’t. It’s not the guns, it’s the culture of a particular department or precinct.

Gun control works. The first question should be “do you want a gun?” if the answer is “yes” then you’re the sort of person who shouldn’t be allowed to own one.

In what way do we have no liberty? We are a free and democratic country.

Also, what’s with the reference to the IRA? That period of history is over. You have just as many homegrown nutters

I live in the North of England and have never seen an armed cop here. And I never want to. I’ve spent time in the States – New York City, Louisville and Florida – and I know where I feel safest.

Did someone say that the Queen told a child visiting her country to get off the gate??!! What the!!!! More insight as to why they hated Diana. Someone please tell me I read that wrong. Please!!

An American take on the stats: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jun/24/blog-posting/social-media-post-says-uk-has-far-higher-violent-c/

Are you living in the 13th century? British freedoms are the model for America (the American Revolution occurred because the same rights weren’t being extended to British subjects in the 13 colonies, not because the rights didn’t exist in Britain), and the IRA hasn’t been an issue for nearly 20 years. But how safe do you feel wandering around in Detroit? Or East LA? Or gated communities in Florida? Or large areas of almost any large American city? To name a few.Your argument is not simply specious, it is ridiculous for being utterly backwards.

100.

Dang

Ditto New Zealand. The first time I ever saw an armed cop, other than on a screen, was on my 68th birthday, after the Christchurch mosque shootings, 230 miles north of where I live.

The sad thing is (I looked it up) Its true.

TICKLING IS MEAN