Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of the military. Finally, the effects of major external effects such as terrorism and
wars have often devastated urban places must be acknowledged. In the former case
local police services are now more alert to the threats from terrorist activity, from
the radical gangs in western Europe in the 1970s, to separatist movements, such as
those in Basque areas of Northern East Spain, or the I.R.A. in northern Ireland—al-
though participants in these campaigns see themselves as nationalists fighting for a
cause. But again the main defence against these problems comes from the various
security arms of the state, although they may alert the local forces of law and order
and medical services to the impending threats, who are usually the first responders.
In the case of wars cities used to have their own protections, through their walls
and moats, but advances in canons by the end of the eighteenth century made such
defences irrelevant, so many were torn down and converted into green spaces. This
means that security from external attack is now in the hands of the military arms
of the state, so urban places have little role to play, although in some countries the
tradition of local militias still exists. All these examples show that the problem
of ensuring the safety of the urban population remains a complex one. Policies to
reduce and control crime are only part of the solutions that are needed to improve
safety and security, but still a very necessary one in terms of the quality of life of
citizens in urban places.
A more immediate and growing threat to cities of the developed world has been
the increase in terrorist attacks in the past decade, mainly from radical Islamists
who deny the verses advocating peace in their holy topic in their frequent attempts
to strike at the heart of what they see as a material and corrupt developed world.
The major western cities have been at particular risk, as seen in the destruction of
the Trade Centre towers in New York on Sept 11th 2001. Many of these risks have
been reduced by new protective measures from expanded intelligence and polic-
ing services, but the need for continued vigilance and especially information and
co-operation from the public, is obvious. The difference from similar terrorists in
the past is that contemporary terrorist activities have the capacity to be far more
destructive, given modern technology, and are also far more global in scope. They
have the ability to strike anywhere, with the centres of wealth and control, such as
the centres of big cities of the western world, their ports and airports, as particular
targets. In all these situations municipalities have limited ability to provide security
for their citizens; this is primarily the function of the security forces of national
governments. The consequence of all these dangers has been that all cities, and
especially vulnerable areas such as airports and port facilities, have increased their
level of security programmes, with local police and emergency services geared to
cope with such attacks.
12﻽9
Conclusions
One of the most important issues that relate to the relative liveability of places is the
degree of safety from crime that creates harm to people and their possessions. This
review has focused upon the issues associated with safety from crime, as opposed to
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