Public insecurity increases in Madrid

Insecurity in and around the Spanish capital is growing, according to reports which measure crime rates over the past 12 months.

Police records have revealed that street crime has risen 11% since May, 2001, when there were an average of 60 armed robberies per day and 82 car thefts, in a total of 924 crimes per day.

These figures reflect the norm in the majority of western European countries, which, gripped in a wave of monetarist frenzy, started to cut police personnel in the 1980s, moving policemen off the streets and into super-squadrons kilometres away from the worst affected areas.

National parliaments are debating the need to put more police on the streets, a measure which would appear obvious.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru