British ex-top cop: Nova Scotians live in blissful ignorance

This weekend, I listened to a speech on the BBC radio by Lord Ian Blair, former head of London's metropolitan police, lamenting growing fears about violence in British society. He presented statistics that suggest Britain isn't getting more violent, and argued instead that "media manipulation" is just making it look that way. Then he held us up as a salubrious counter-example."I want to mention Nova Scotia to you," he said. "The crime rate in England and Wales and the crime rate in Nova Scotia is about the same per 10,000 [of] population. People in Nova Scotia leave their doors open. They feel very safe, and the reason for that is they don't hear about crime unless it happens in Nova Scotia or it happens... it is so big it is on the CBS news, or whatever."

The next day I visited the website of the local CBC, and these were the main headlines: "Remains found in Truro may be biker's"; "Hell's Angel killed former biker: police"; "Neighbours saddened by Cape Breton girl's death"; "Slain yachtsman's daughter returning to Canada"; "SMU seeks help with aging stadium"; "Two shootings in Spryfield." Presumably the headlines at CBS or whatever are even worse.