Im a nimby, protect me
Timesonline Link
These two paragraphs caught my attention though:
Timesonline Link
It was dusk on an April evening in affluent Little Venice in northwest London. People were drinking outside the nearby pub as a 33-year-old woman named Sabrina parked outside her house. She had just taken her 18-month-old son from her car and was putting him down on the pavement when she was assaulted from behind.
Two men grabbed her around the throat while another wrenched her watch and engagement ring from her. A fourth looked on. Sabrina was throttled so violently that she briefly passed out, and it was a week before she could speak properly again. Her son was screaming. I was terrified. I felt totally vulnerable, she says. I was also furious. How dare people do that?
For Sabrina who asked that her surname be withheld the attack was the final straw. She had no doubt the men were waiting for her, because other women in the area had been targeted in a similar fashion. Weeks earlier two youths had tried to snatch her mobile phone. Several cars in the street had had tyres slashed by vandals and the police were seldom seen. Sabrina decided to act. She persuaded around 30 neighbours to hire a private policeman to patrol the block. I dont think anyone whod been through what Id been through would want to be a sitting-duck any more, she says.
Is this the future? Are private street guards destined to become an indispensable and ubiquitous adjunct for the affluent? In some parts of northwest London such as St Johns Wood, Regents Park and Maida Vale they already are. Avenue Road, Acacia Road and Abbey Road (of Beatle fame) all have them, as do umpteen other nearby streets.
Two men grabbed her around the throat while another wrenched her watch and engagement ring from her. A fourth looked on. Sabrina was throttled so violently that she briefly passed out, and it was a week before she could speak properly again. Her son was screaming. I was terrified. I felt totally vulnerable, she says. I was also furious. How dare people do that?
For Sabrina who asked that her surname be withheld the attack was the final straw. She had no doubt the men were waiting for her, because other women in the area had been targeted in a similar fashion. Weeks earlier two youths had tried to snatch her mobile phone. Several cars in the street had had tyres slashed by vandals and the police were seldom seen. Sabrina decided to act. She persuaded around 30 neighbours to hire a private policeman to patrol the block. I dont think anyone whod been through what Id been through would want to be a sitting-duck any more, she says.
Is this the future? Are private street guards destined to become an indispensable and ubiquitous adjunct for the affluent? In some parts of northwest London such as St Johns Wood, Regents Park and Maida Vale they already are. Avenue Road, Acacia Road and Abbey Road (of Beatle fame) all have them, as do umpteen other nearby streets.
Six companies offer the service in the capital. Sabrina employed one called 1st Class Protection, which patrols 26 streets in northwest London, adds another every month or two, and is now receiving inquiries from residents in middle-class districts such as Edgware, Totteridge and Bushey. In certain areas it will become the norm, not the exception, predicts Assaf Cohen, the companys managing director and a former Israeli army special-operations officer.
Assaf Cohen, 35, runs 1st Class Protection with Olga, his Belarussian assistant, from an estate agents in Hendon. Since 2003 he has built a team of 35 trained guards, including several former Israeli soldiers, a former lieutenant-colonel in the Slovakian Army, a former Lithuanian police officer and Olgas husband, a former boxing champion from Belarus. To judge by his BMW convertible, he is doing very nicely. He says that streets usually approach him after particlularly nasty crimes have persuaded their residents that the police can no longer protect them and they must take charge of their own security.
