The next time some liberal Europhile tells you England is safer than the United States remember that most crimes in England aren’t even reported. From The Telegraph:

Violent offences including gun crime and knife crime are far more common than official figures currently suggest, a leaked police memo discloses.

The internal memo, written by a senior officer, says there has been significant under reporting of serious crime and warns of “serious concerns” that confidence in the police and Government will be knocked when the true levels are revealed.

It was drawn up in response to a briefing paper given to the Metropolitan Police Authority outlining Home Office changes to the definition of crimes.

Under the changes, police have been told to classify all offences as gun or knife crime when there is a threat with a weapon. Previously, this did not happen if the weapons were hidden.

Similarly, more assaults are to be classified as grievous bodily harm rather than the less serious actual bodily harm when a victim is injured.

In the memo, Det Chief Superintendent Peter Barron said: “The potential increase could be a rise in recorded GBH of 58 per cent, a rise in gun crime of 20 per cent and a rise in knife crime of 15 per cent.”

Last year there were 22,151 recorded knife crimes in England and Wales and 9,803 firearm offences.

Last year is was reported that there was a “knife crime” every 24 minutes in England, that figure is apparently much higher. I guess living in a culture where self defense is considered a right has some advantages.