Been thinking quite a bit about this lately, what with all the knife related crime in the press, and my own personal situation - two weeks I almost got mugged at a cashpoint, indeed I am certain I would have done were it not for the police car which pulled up just down the road at the time, presumably in the direction the muggers would have fled in. Two hours later some other guy was mugged at the same place by assailants matching the description, at knifepoint.
Recently I've started working at Halfords in Wolverhampton, now the store here is in a really pretty dodgy area, on the 5 ways island near Bushbury (itself a bit rough, to put it mildly) but also near this run down industrial estate where a lot of homeless druggies live - the area is somewhat notorious for it. Of the 4 lads I work with on a Tuesday at the store, 2 of them say they've been threatened with knives when challenging shoplifters just outside the store :/.
Nobody expects us to get stabbed for the sake of the job mind you, but equally letting people go unchallenged when they try to steal things is considered a bit off too, given how blatant some of them are - just walking in, grabbing two bikes and trying to carry them out, is fairly typical of how blatant the thieves are and turning the other cheek completely isn't an option when its that obvious. If it comes to it though, I'll leg it! Nobody seriously expects anything other than a token effort to try and stop the thieves.
), they are disinclined to start trouble. If they have a nife, however, they'll probably feel that the balance is in their favour aain, and they'd be right.
