Smith admits London street fear

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has admitted she would not feel safe walking around London after dark.
Ms Smith told the Sunday Times that she would not be comfortable alone at night in deprived parts of the capital, as well as more affluent areas.

Asked if she would feel safe walking alone in the Hackney neighbourhood, Ms Smith replied: "Well, no, but I don't think I'd have ever have done."

Labour says crime is down compared to the Tories' time in power in the 1990s.

'Fortunate'

In the interview with the Sunday Times, Ms Smith was asked why she would not feel safe on Hackney's streets at night.

She replied: "Well, I just don't think that's a thing that people do, is it, really?"

I don't get the opportunity to get out on my own now but I certainly have done in the recent past
Jacqui Smith Home Secretary
She was also questioned about how she would feel if she was walking through the more affluent area of Kensington and Chelsea after dark.

"Well, I wouldn't walk around at midnight and I'm fortunate that I don't have to do that," she said.

Ms Smith told the newspaper she used to walk around Redditch, her constituency in Worcestershire, but added that she no longer got the chance because she was protected by police bodyguards.

"I don't get the opportunity to get out on my own now but I certainly have done in the recent past," she said.

'Kebab purchase'

Following the interview, the newspaper claimed it was contacted by one of the home secretary's aides who said that Ms Smith's remarks had not come out as she had intended.

The aide added that Ms Smith had recently "bought a kebab in Peckham" - an area of south London considered one of the most deprived.

Figures released by the Metropolitan Police in October last year showed overall crime in London had dropped 6.1% between April and September 2007, but that gun crime had risen by nearly 10%.

Ms Smith told the newspaper the government had a "big job" to persuade people that towns and cities had not become more dangerous.

"I understand that whilst it's a fact that crime is falling, what you want to know is what's happening on your street; what the police officers in your area are doing and who they are," she said.

"That's one thing we'll provide to people. Serious violence is something we need to address."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/7198508.stm

Published: 2008/01/19 23:47:44 GMT

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"I don't get the opportunity to get out on my own now..."
Ms Smith

No, because you have armed bodyguards providing protection for you 24 hours a day.

Perhaps when you are no longer in office your armed protection will be withdrawn and your fears for your own personal safety will prompt you to campaign for a recognition that ordinary people should be allowed weapons of defence, suitable for their condition and as allowed by law?

Or will you simply get a special protection officer for the rest of your days instead?

But in actual fact, Ms Smith's spin doctors have carefully crafted this story to provoke a raft of Hackney residents replies to the affect that Hackney is a perfectly safe place to live. They no doubt hope that the community in Hackney and in other poorer parts of London will break their necks to prove her wrong an thereby prove to the doubters that London is indeed a safe place to live and to be fearful of violent crime is in fact irrational. Much better if the resisdents themselves tell the rest of us how safe Hackney is after all.

Of course I bet there are more than a few families who have recently lost loved ones who would agree with Ms Smith and understand why she would not walk about after dark without the protection of an armed bodyguard.