Bottle Attacks? Glassings?

The internets are a wondrous thing.  The tubes that comprise the nets let you go many places and learn many interesting things. 

As I previously disclosed, the Bad Lawyer is ethnically poor white trailer trash.  Which means my family is can trace it's roots back to trailer parks in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland via the Ohio River valley and God knows, where before that.  When the world of the internets entered our household in the era of the dial-up modem--the Blonde Super Lawyer immediately wanted to trace her heritage back to the Mayflower, blah, blah, blah.  Since most of my relations lived in "houses" with wheels, I had less interest, but in the golden age of the Bad Lawyer Blawg (er, now) era I have been looking at international websites--particularly Wales, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.  Lots of my posts have originated with stories from those websites. If you've ever done this, and by the way I highly recommend it--you will find interesting takes, like New Zealand's obsession on helmets for their nude cyclists.  So here's a new one on the Bad Lawyer---Wales is suffering through "bottle attacks."

Bottle attacks?  What the hell?  Wales Online is reporting that the authorities in the South Wales valleys are struggling with something called the "bottle culture," I'll let Gary Marsh of the Cynon Valley Leader bring you up to speed: 

"Figures show shocking number of bottle attacks in the South Wales Valleys  THREE people a week are bottled or glassed in the South Wales Valleys, according to new police figures.

In a harrowing reflection of what police term the 'bottle culture,'  bottles or glasses were used as weapons in more than 160 attacks during the past financial year.   A quarter of those were in the most dangerous category, involving broken bottles or glasses used as offensive weapons.  The figures also show that some of the victims were younger than 12 years old, while the majority were in their teens and early 20s.  The figures, obtained by Cynon Valley AM Christine Chapman, AM for the Cynon Valley, have been described as 'terrifyin.'   Mrs Chapman has since written to South Wales Police to express her concern. 'I am particularly concerned about any attack on a child,' she said.

One paramedic, who did not wish to be named, said glass attacks often resulted in severe injuries that could be life-threatening.  He said most of the incidents he had come across took place at night, usually in a public place like a bar.

'Speaking about the ones that I saw, they were pretty serious things, with quite severe injuries,' he said., 'Depending on where on their body they are attacked, it could even be life-threatening.'

And the new statistics show that even children are no longer immune.Between April 2008 and March 2009, there were fewer than three glassing attacks on children under 12, 21 attacks involving teenagers, 58 involving people aged 20-24, and 67 on people over 25.  Inspector Tony Bishop said officers take glassing seriously and have brought down the number of attacks by asking pubs to use plastic glasses on big event days.  Insp[ector] Bishop said: 'You stereotypically think of a broken glass being thrust into someone’s face like you see on television. But glass injuries can occur when someone throws a bottle in a street or in a licensed premises'.  Campaigners would like to see alcohol brewers replace glass bottles with plastic alternatives.Dr Alasdair Forsyth, of the Glasgow Centre for the Study of Violence, said: 'Research shows that far more people use a glass bottle than a knife as a weapon. 'Although many do not consider a bottle to be a weapon.'”
_______________________________
Note, I am not ridiculing this problem.  I did an image search, and the injuries from these attacks are ghastly! Wales wisely is not a "gun culture."  So it's interesting to see this permutation on gang culture or should I say thug behavior.   Another world.