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More than half of Belgians feel less safe than five years ago
More than half of Belgians (56%) feel less safe at night than in 2010, while 40% feel the same level of safety as five years ago. That’s according to a survey of 2,800 Belgians by Test-Achats carried out between November 2014 and January 2015, reports De Morgen based on the results published in TA-Magazine.
In the period 2010-2014, 40% of the respondents were victims of various offenses, the most common being car vandalism (13%), wallet or handbag theft (11%), home burglary (10%), bicycle theft or vandalism (10%) and physical aggression (8%).
In 8% of the cases, the crime was accompanied by physical violence, 11% caused injury requiring medical care and one in three victims faced post-traumatic stress following the incident.
Strikingly, the results show that more than 30% of the victims did not report the crime to the police. Car theft is the most often reported crime, while animal abuse is the least often reported.
Comments
I definitely feel less safe. You never see any police agents walking on the sidewalks, you never see them in congested areas, you never see them at big train stations and, if you do, they are smoking cigarettes, talking on the phone, talking to another policeman, and look inherently bored and unprofessional. I have had countless robberies/thefts of my home and my personal belongings. I have had policemen show up after a robbery and ask to borrow paper and pen! They send someone to take fingerprints and that person tells you nothing will happen because the lab tests are 400 euros and they can't afford the cost so nothing will happen. There are beggars and gypsies everywhere you look and nothing is done. There are prostitutes soliciting and cars stopping to negotiate on pedestrian and residential streets and the police and echevins say it is legal so nothing they can do. There are insufficient CCTV cameras. The list goes on. It is very disheartening and Belgians just "shrug their shoulders" and accept it. WE SHOULD NOT ACCEPT SUCH COMPLACENCY AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.