Liverpool City.

[Captain Kong]

During the war Liverpool got a fair hammering but the people never let it get them down as regards to crime there where a lot more of that in a lot of other places i always felt safe when i was in the Pool so Jim you have a very good point in what you have said
Lou.
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Here are two views of Liverpool, The first is of Derby Square. The rooms for the Examination of Mates and Masters is now in the same location from where the photo was taken from. Near the Law Courts.
Queen Victorias Statue in the foreground is still there.
The other photo is from the South side of the City, the Liver Buildings are in the distance.
In the May Blitz in 1940, 2,400 people were killed.
I remember seeing all the devestation around the City Centre and along Castle Street and John Street
and so on. go on zoom and see the devestation better.
It took a hellofa long time to rebuild.
Cheers
Brian

[Gulliver]

I like Liverpool and even though after about 1974 I never shipped out from there,usually joining and leaving ships abroad,I always felt like it was my home port,having studied there pre-sea. ,and being issued with my first Discharge Book there,and joining my first company Bibby's via an introduction from the BSF(British Shipping Federation) at Mann Island.


It always had that indefinable air of mild excitement-like something was waiting to happen, which made going for a night out in the city a bit exciting...
But, much as I don’t wish to rain on Liverpool’s parade I do think all types of crime have to be considered in the overall picture,if we are not to be unduly blinkered by statistics.For instance,violent crimes.Every city in the U.K.(not just Liverpool) has a lower rate than London -that‘s because -more people live there after all !
And other crimes?
I also agree with the other statements here that there are probably no more thieves and robberies than there are in any other comparably populated cities in the U.K.

But what about organised crime,then?
The following article was written five years ago,and I just wonder how much,or how little,things have changed in the last five years?.

Liverpool revealed as centre for organised crime in North

by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post Nov. 19th 2007

　
　
　
　
LIVERPOOL has been revealed as Britain's centre for organised crime outside London, in figures for the number of "Mr Bigs" brought to court.
There were 24 prosecutions in the city in the first year of Britain's FBI-style crime squad, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Only the capital, with 89 prosecutions, was a bigger focus for SOCA, which was set up to take the fight to the gangs flooding the country with illegal drugs, as well as guns.
Other big cities, such as Newcastle (14), Manchester (13) and Birmingham (13), saw little more than half the number of prosecutions in Liverpool.

The figures, released by the Home Office, confirm the warnings by Merseyside police that SOCA's eyes must be "firmly focused on Liverpool".
When the agency was established last year, then Deputy Chief Constable Jon Murphy described Liverpool as a "mission critical area", because of its links with Spain, Turkey and South America.
Around 30 former Merseyside police officers, with between 15 and 25 years' experience each, were recruited to its ranks.
Now the Home Office figures have revealed that more than one in 12 of SOCA's total of 283 prosecutions in 2006-7 were in Liverpool.
Perhaps the most high-profile success came in June, when a Merseyside gang was jailed for a total of 133 years for its involvement in a £4m plot to supply drugs.
The conspiracy was smashed when police bugged a car owned by one of the organisers in Formby Hall Golf Club car park, the trial at Liverpool Crown Court was told.
During the investigation, heroin with a street value of £3.5m was discovered in a Rotterdam warehouse, ready for onward transport to Liverpool.
SOCA's annual report also hails the success of "Operation LIMITO", which targeted a Merseyside gang trafficking Class A drugs and firearms into Britain and on to the Republic of Ireland.
Officers seized five Glock 9mm pistols, more than 14,000 rounds of ammunition, 18 magazines, 17,000 in euros and 30 kilos of heroin.
In the annual report, Liverpool, London and Birmingham were described as "significant centres for the distribution of all types of Class A drugs".
It added: "They supply other cities, which in turn operate as regional centres supplying smaller cities and towns."
On a more upbeat note, SOCA described its targeting of key Merseyside criminals among the "positive developments in levels of knowledge in year one".
Overall, it seized one fifth of Europe's cocaine supply in its first year of operation, prevented 35 potential murders and drew up a list of 1,600 crime chiefs, the agency said.
However, it warned: "The profits to be made from serious organised crime ensure that the various activities continue to be attractive and the overall threat to the UK remains high."
Furthermore, with high levels of poppy and coca cultivation, in Afghanistan and Colombia respectively, there was "ready availability" of hard drugs at falling prices.
And there was an increased use of guns by gang members "driven predominantly by the trade in Class A drugs,.


　
　
　
I do like Liverpool Jim and know how defensive you Scousers are about your home city but suggesting nominating it for inclusion in the ‘Tranquil Wee Haven ‘ category(figuratively speaking) must have involved you in a great deal of effort in stuffing your tongue firmly into that cheek…
Gulliver

[Captain Kong]

About 15 years ago I used to appear on the Billy Butler show with my old mate Tommy Miller, with Billy and Wally.
It was in Stanley Street then at the top of Dale Street. `Magic 1548`.
We played a couple of `Drunks` a couple of days a week. I was known as `ALEHOUSE` then.
We told tales of drunken exploits in Valparaiso and Tombo Marys and so on , also some of the antics we got up to in Liverpool and New York. A lot of people used to phone in about us.
It wasnt us but someone phoned in to say they had seen us in Lewis`s Store trying to get Up the Down escalator, shouting , "These stairs wont stay still" . We were quite popular then.
I sailed with Tommy on the old `Franconia` in 1956, and still see him regularly, I was having a drink with him in the Eldonian Club on Merchant Navy Day.
He wrote his book "The Pier Head Jump" and he has just done a sequal but cannot find a Publisher.
When he left the sea he became the Galleries Manager at the Albert Dock. now lives at Orrel Park nea to Aintree.
Happy days
Brian.

[John Pruden]

as someone who has worked all over this country of ours although i am a scouser through and through and maybe a bit bias towards other counties if you make friends with a scouser you have a friend for life we can take anything on the chin and when i get the dopey wheels taken of the car joke my reply is always why pinch wheels that have a perfectly good car attached to them?you foreigners{non scousers} must have sailed with a few characters in your sea timejp

[Captain Kong]

I was involved in a Double murder in Liverpool, The two managers of the Cameo Cinema were shot in a robbery attempt. One man, Johnson, confessed to the murders and got aquited, then Two men were arrested, One, George Kelly, hanged, pleading innocence and the other, Charles Connolly, got ten years in Wakefield for Conspiracy.
I became a very close friend of Charles and I introduced him to an author, George Skelly, and George wrote the book , "Cameo Conspiracy", [on Amazon[, I am in the book.
We with a Liverpool Business man, who was convinced of Charles innocence, campaigned to clear the names of the two innocent men and eventually did so after appealing to the Criminal Appeals Court in London. A little too late for George Kelly as he was hanged and just a little too late for Charles who unfortunately died in Norris Green Asda a little while before, but it brought some comfort to the families.
Because he had had his name cleared George Kelly was dug up from under the car park of Walton Gaol and they had a funeral service in the Catholic Cathedral. George Skelly and I went and they refused to let us in. They had some Security Men on the door. We were the ones who made it possible and cleared his name but we were refused entry, we waited outside for an hour in the rain and cold. then I took the photos.
It is a very interesting book, of Police Corruption at its best with Inspector Balmer, who beat me up in my house and got a conviction for the two men. Charles told me that Balmer was the only man to commit the Perfect murder, he got the State to kill them. There is another book coming out, about the Burns and Devlin Case, two young lads hanged for the murder of an old lady, set up by Balmer, George is trying to prove their innocence. another very interesting case to come out of Liverpool.
Brian

[Jim Brady]

Gulliver,organised crime I think is quite different to what I was trying to define and as you say there are more people living in London than Liverpool so you would expect the figures to be higher but the figures that I quoted were a percentage of population ,per capita.I know a lad that has just been given 8 years for dealing in the drug trade in a big way,yes organised crime as the judge put it and a week has not gone by recently without scores of homes been raided multiple arrests and prosecutions with long term gaol terms being dished out.So how does organised crime affect the average citizen,not atall.These people have more money than the Pope so they are not likely to break into my house and steal my car.Most of them live in the affluent parts of Merseyside sending their kids to private school and keeping a low profile.The only thing organised crime does is turn some good kids into drug addicts and it is these at the bottom of the ladder in society that are likely to break into houses,shoplift and get upto any other scam to raise money to feed their drug habit.We have shootings here most weeks,once again these are all drug related gang against gang.I myself would like to see free guns and ammo being handed out to these gangs and let them kill each other.Someone will most probably remind me that a young innocent kid Rhys Jones was caught in the cross fire and killed.So Gulliver it is quite a safe place to live as the figures prove.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Capt Bill Davies]

I recommended Liverpool University to my son, he had passed for Cambridge and decided too many poofters there so he went to Liverpool Medical School on my advice and became a great Consultant of Liver Diseases and is well known on both sides of the Atlantic., he appears on TV some times talking on Liver diseases. He loves it.
Cheers
Brian.

There you go again Brian. Totally unnecessary and I am sure your son would distance himself from that comment.

Brgds

Bill

[Captain Kong]

Click this link for the number of famous people who came from Merseyside. Unfortunately I am not on it. maybe next time. There are hundreds. from GOOGLE.
.
.List of people from Merseyside - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaen.
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wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Merseyside

[Neville Roberts]

Hi Brian , I guess its good to have a son who knows about liver problems .did you recomend that line of work to save your liver

[Captain Kong]

There you go again Brian. Totally unnecessary and I am sure your son would distance himself from that comment.

Brgds

Bill
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JUST SHOWING THAT LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY IS A GOOD IF NOT THE BEST UNIVERSITY IN ITS FIELD.
The Medical School is reckoned to be the best in the Country.
If he had gone else where he may not have done so well. No problem with that.
I was just boosting Liverpool`s Image.
It is not all gloom and doom in Liverpool, It does have its very good parts, not just crime and grime.
Brian.;