Acid attacks

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Thank you, the_phoenix.

And to the other poster who said these attacks are "rare" or usually between people who know each other -- they are now also being used in random opportunistic theft crimes, to steal phones, to mug, to steal other mopeds (which is why two riders travel together), and a carjacking that also happened in an area near me.

Again, while I agree that you can't live your life thinking something like this is definitely going to happen to you, because it probably will not, it does need to said at the same time that these gangs ARE out there and one of them passed me on the street today, there is no doubt in my mind.

Especially if you live in an urban area, and it doesn't get much more urban than my city, and Joe90 also lives in another fairly urban environment with a fairly strapping crime rate, as do I.

If you're living in a nice, laid back sleepy town, it's more appropriate for people to tell you to just put it completely out of your mind because something like this could never happen.

But in the cities some of us live, it is happening and with an increase in numbers not just reporting. There is definitely a small epidemic of these attacks as opportunistic theft methods, not just the old revenge crimes they used to be between exes or traditional family members.

I really can't stand when someone tries to call everything an unnecessary panic even when a crime has become taken up by new operators and things are taking place right around a person.

Having said this, I agree with the advice to be vigilant, not draw attention to oneself, and not show expensive goods on one's person. Pay attention to your surroundings and also -- pay attention to gut feelings. Don't enter that place if you suddenly think there's something up with the person you see there; cross the road and change direction if you think someone is following you -- seriously, that tingle and whoosh tells you stuff cynical people will forever deny.

Every time I ever ignored that gut feeling, s**t happened.

I agree re "gut feelings" - never ignore them! They're right, every time. I ask myself, "What harm?" and if there's no harm in following my gut feelings, then I hurry up and do that. I've never regretted it.

I have been in those places too. Witnessed a attempted stabbing, been assaulted 2-1 (they got 6 months 4months for me). The area that I witnessed that stabling is a very yuppie area, by that time.

I have also studied martial arts for almost a decade, with liveness testing.

I also suffered from anxiety, and have spent years improving and managing it. Some anxiety is a natural and healthy and can protect you, but it can get out of hand. I know a pattern of anxiety when I see it. That is my gut feeling.

My point being, that there is a differnce between being vigilant, and focusing too much on one thing becuase it makes you anxious. It is leads to something to constructive then fine otherwise it more likely a pattern of anxiety.

If being anxious makes you freeze up that in itself makes you more vulnerable.

Trusting your gut happens at the time, by all means do that. I'm more talking about patterns of anxiety, which can also be debilitating and limiting.

Well, Joe90 has indeed spoken, herself, about having anxiety and therefore yes possibly a pattern of anxiety that may be overly attuned.

But that still doesn't negate the fact that there are actually figures to back up the fact that these attacks are in fact on the rise, and it's not NOTHING.

It's like the old saying: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

That's just a saying not meant to be taken literally -- nobody is actually out to get Joe or anyone, but what I'm trying to point out is that her fear is not unfounded and neither is anyone's living in a major city or town in the UK lately.

I was seeing something on the news about moped crime and it's THE POLICE THEMSELVES who are admitting the crime is up huge percentage. THEY released the fact that 15,000 moped gang crimes had taken place last year. The police themselves are releasing the information that this particular type of attack, using acid or bleach or other corrosive substances, IS leaping up the charts. We are now also being told how to deal with it if a victim or if we come across another victim.

It's not groundless to be worried about the growth rate and statistics of this particular crime even IF you already suffer from anxiety that is often groundless.

Is what I'm saying. There's one of these gangs I've now seen TWICE in three days in MY neighborhood, and I don't consider it just an anxiety pattern that twice I was caught in a lonely spot with these people driving past me eyeing me as a potential victim.

I am about to report my sitings to a local police "clinic" ---- because they closed ALL the police station around here, cut the officers on duty, and even the police admit the rise of these gangs have come directly from knowing about the police cuts made by the UK government.
They also deliberately ride without helmets -- but with soft coverings on their faces -- because they know police will not give chase to a helmet-less rider.

They ARE out there and i'm sick of people talking about unlikliness of being a victim. Tell that to the people who have been given life changing injuries who were previously walking around London thinking it won't happen to them. It's happening to somebody on a regular basis.

SICK of invalidation.