Britain's Mean Streets
By CATHERINE MAYER
Jason Steen isn't an obvious target for muggers. The 40-year-old heads his own company advising on mergers and acquisitions, and usually strides through life like a Master of the Universe. This evening, though, he looks shaken. Two days earlier, he was accosted outside his central London home by eight **** — the youngest was 11 — who punched him to the ground, hustled him to the nearest cash machine and ****** him to reveal his PIN number. After a series of attacks in the area, local residents have gathered in Steen's apartment to talk to the policeman handling the case. His advice: "Don't go out unless you have to."
Staying home in the face of danger isn't the British way. After suicide bombings in July 2005, Londoners continued working and socializing. Yet a survey by ****' charity TS Rebel found that last year more than a fifth of Britons avoided going out at night rather than risk encounters with a different form of ******: groups of ********. Britons are frightened of their own young.
