Before starting university at Kingston
two years ago, I spent the majority of my life in a very rural, quiet
and idyllic village tucked away in the Cotswolds. I craved the
hustle and bustle of a life in a city where I could just be an
anonymous face in the crowd. Wander up and down streets in and
around London with no one knowing my name and no one knowing anything
about me. You see at 'home home', everyone knows my name, details on
my family and how I like my tea. Black no sugar thanks very much(!)
You physically can't avoid bumping into someone you know whether it
be your GP or the milkman, or those neighbours who's floral
arrangements displayed proudly in their front gardens, trump those of
your parents on an annual basis. Much to their disgust. That's
about as much 'drama' or friction that occurs in our village.
Unsurprisingly, my parents were quite
worried that I'd decided to go to the largest, busiest and most alien
city in the country. Inhabitants of Broadway, Worcestershire will
tell you that living there is like being in a protective bubble. In
fact, David 'The Hoff' Hasselhoff has just recently purchased a
property there, and I can assure you the number of his personal
assistants or security guards will outnumber the local police
constables by about 1 million to 1. Our police station is only open
once a week, and when it is open there is often a sign on the front
reading: 'Back in 20 minutes', I suspect it is not crime they are
fighting at this time, but a serious operation of tackling a bacon
sarnie from the local delicatessen. Om freaking nom. This is quite
simply because where I live there is a very low crime rate.
On a very serious note however, the
deeply saddening incident that occurred in my local and very popular
nightclub 'Oceana' in the early hours of Thursday the 25th
October, involving a young man named as Jamie Sanderson being stabbed
in the cloakroom area, has come as a cruel reminder to me that, the
city I now live in, is not as safe as it perhaps could be. Perhaps,
I am biased as this is just down to the fact that I compare it to the
previous environment I was used to?! I would also like to stress,
that I am not in any way suggesting that crime does not happen in
rural areas, of course it does. Largely, I admit, there are a lot
less security measures such as CCTV cameras in these areas, which may
in turn lead to members of the area feeling more vulnerable.
However, an incident at the UK's busiest nightclub equipped with some
90 CCTV cameras along with metal detectors and a 'recently installed
ID capture scanning system' failed to avert the incident before it
became fatal. (Information sourced from Oceana Facebook page).
Clearly the presence of CCTV cameras are not
everything. I am not trying to point the blame towards the members
of security staff at the club or their measures, as we can not be
sure of all the factors to consider before a serious and extensive
inquest has been carried out. Pointing the blame at anyone or
anything that is not directly linked to the perpetrator(s) of this
shocking crime will not bring Jamie back. My comments and feelings
on the matter are not intended to offend or upset anyone who feels
affected by this incident or anyone who has been through similar
incidents in the past. I am deeply sorry if they do. I just feel
this enormous sense of responsibility in light of what has happened
to encourage a heightened sense of awareness of how we can all
minimise risk to ourselves as students when we go on a night out in
Kingston or indeed other areas of London.
We have the right to feel safe wherever
we live and need to understand that unfortunately often things happen
that are outside of our control. Please stay with your fellow
students and friends on a night out and ensure that no one is ever
left on their own and so are not at more risk of being more
vulnerable. This is true of both men and women, and sadly I am
guilty of this and will often wander off on my own to go to the loo
or get myself a drink as I have done at 'home home' as I just don't
think of the danger I could potentially be putting myself under.
Simple precautions like making yourself aware of the whereabouts of
exits and security staff, carrying a mobile phone with you and always
alerting staff as soon as possible of any suspicious or violent
behaviour could help us to minimise the risk of horrible incidents
like these happening again.
What do you think? Do you always feel
safe going out as a student in Kingston? Do you believe we should be
made more aware of the potential dangers of going out clubbing in
general?
The points that you make are logical, but sadly may be irrelevant to the situation at hand. I don't think that neither surrounding yourself with friends nor even a heightened sense of awareness of incidents like this will prove to make any difference; there is no smoke without fire, and whilst the response was clearly disproportionate to the extreme (separate question answering why somebody would respond like this and how to deal with them), I am sure there was provocation. If x had just been out to stab somebody at random (i.e. had x been a crazed murderer looking for y to kill) he would have done it much sooner than the end of the evening. He would have most probably done it upon entering the club if that had been the sole intention of his excursion. My point is that a more practical approach would be not to get into arguments with strangers (as is what probably occurred here: a simple dispute that normally would have resulted in a few cross words got out of hand because one of the parties was clearly a dangerous and morally reckless person with cognitive/psychological and behavioural problems). It is much rarer to be attacked at random than if you provoke a situation. How likely is it that a bear will attack you if it just sees you walking through the woods compared to how likely it would be if you stand next to it poking it with a stick?
ReplyDeleteHi Adam, thanks for reading and commenting, I really appreciate your opinions on the subject! :) Your points are very good indeed.
ReplyDeleteI think I largely agree with you, that given the example I provided of this poor man's death, applying the advice I mentioned may not have made any difference at all in the situation. To suggest so, might prove an insult to his family and friends at this sensitive time. Whilst I totally agree with your point about not getting into arguments or frictions with strangers is always bound to be a good idea, we don't yet know for sure if that was the cause in this case. I still maintain my point on staying in a large group of friends would generally mean that you are less likely to be attacked/provoked, but appreciate that it may have been highly likely that Jamie was singled out whilst in the cloakroom area in this case.
However, the point I was trying to make overall was that a situation like this happening so close to our proximity should instil a sort of respect for dangerous situations that can be apparent around us, and to encourage students to be more alert to these risks when going out. I realise now, upon reflection of what I have written that I could have been much more clear with the intention of my writing though(!)
I think I was mainly just trying to point out the lessons we can learn from situations like this, but I think you are completely right that the example I provided within the writing was an extreme and quite rare occurrence in Kingston and as such not all of my advice would always help in a similar, extreme situation.