At last we are starting to fight back
TIME was when the corner shop was a cosy place to be.
Think 'Open All Hours'. Shops run by curmudgeonly old so-and-sos in brown smock coats assisted by a spotty youth on a bicycle.
Crime? What crime? The occasional theft of a packet of chewing gum by a small boy doing it for a dare was as bad as it got.
Now the corner shop is a battleground. Practically every estate has a convenience store with its graffiti-daubed shutters locked down day and night where the next customers may be harmless but are just as likely to be a pair of hoodie-wearing thugs brandishing baseball bats demanding the contents of the cash register.
Think of the Falls Road, Belfast, at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland in the early '70s and you get the picture.
We're becoming conditioned to all of this – but we are also fighting back.
The brutal murder of shopkeeper Gurmail Singh shocked a close-knit community but also spurred it into positive action.
No more crossing the road at the first sign of trouble, no more 'we didn't see a thing, officer'.
A growing number, weary of seeing their world turned upside down for the sake of a few pounds to fund someone's drugs habit, are willing to do what they can to apprehend offenders.
The message needs to go out that we are no longer prepared to stand by, we are no longer prepared to live in a state of constant fear.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Halifax
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
