Posted By: chopper
Glasgow - 12/03/07 10:03 PM
SCOTLAND is the most violent place in Britain, according to TV investigator Donal MacIntyre.
And the raw brutality of Glasgow's knife culture has stunned the presenter.
MacIntyre has gone undercover with football hooligans, shared a drink with murderers and roughed it with ancient tribes.
But the Irishman admitted yesterday: "Glasgow is one of the scariest places I have ever worked because the violence is so naked and raw.
"It's only when people come outside of Scotland, and particularly Glasgow, that they realise the knife culture there is really so predictable and using a knife is second nature to many kids."
On the country's blade obsession, he added: "They think nothing of taking a stab wound or inflicting it and they sew themselves up.
"They don't go to hospital If you talk to anybody in Glasgow or Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, they see twice as many stabbing victims as are reported to the police.
"So the crime statistics, bad as they are, aren't very accurate."
In 2004, he investigated the now dead Tam "The Licensee"
McGraw, Paul Ferris, Mark Clinton, and the legacy of Arthur "The Godfather" Thompson.
MacIntyre said: "I've spent a lot of time in Glasgow.
"I did a portrait with Paul Ferris, got some access to his world. His is probably the one film I've done where other gangsters say, 'There's a proper gangster.' "
But Scotland's cities are not alone in becoming more violent.
Shootings are increasing across the UK and questions have been raised as to how effective ASBOs are in dealing with youth crime.
MacIntyre said: "The streets are becoming more dangerous.
"There have always been gangs but now they are carrying more dangerous weapons.
"And teenage gangs are growing up so quickly. What we would regard as teenage behaviour now starts at about eight.
"The information overload - from porn, to drugs, to rap music and peer pressure - is more acute than it ever has been, over a much shorter period at a much younger age.
"Kids are growing up so quickly without tools like common sense.
"So you have 13-year-old boys smoking crack cocaine, whereas 15 years ago they might have been smoking cigarettes."
MacIntyre, 41, who moved to the BBC in 1993, worked for World In Action before fronting MacIntyre Undercover.
And the raw brutality of Glasgow's knife culture has stunned the presenter.
MacIntyre has gone undercover with football hooligans, shared a drink with murderers and roughed it with ancient tribes.
But the Irishman admitted yesterday: "Glasgow is one of the scariest places I have ever worked because the violence is so naked and raw.
"It's only when people come outside of Scotland, and particularly Glasgow, that they realise the knife culture there is really so predictable and using a knife is second nature to many kids."
On the country's blade obsession, he added: "They think nothing of taking a stab wound or inflicting it and they sew themselves up.
"They don't go to hospital If you talk to anybody in Glasgow or Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, they see twice as many stabbing victims as are reported to the police.
"So the crime statistics, bad as they are, aren't very accurate."
In 2004, he investigated the now dead Tam "The Licensee"
McGraw, Paul Ferris, Mark Clinton, and the legacy of Arthur "The Godfather" Thompson.
MacIntyre said: "I've spent a lot of time in Glasgow.
"I did a portrait with Paul Ferris, got some access to his world. His is probably the one film I've done where other gangsters say, 'There's a proper gangster.' "
But Scotland's cities are not alone in becoming more violent.
Shootings are increasing across the UK and questions have been raised as to how effective ASBOs are in dealing with youth crime.
MacIntyre said: "The streets are becoming more dangerous.
"There have always been gangs but now they are carrying more dangerous weapons.
"And teenage gangs are growing up so quickly. What we would regard as teenage behaviour now starts at about eight.
"The information overload - from porn, to drugs, to rap music and peer pressure - is more acute than it ever has been, over a much shorter period at a much younger age.
"Kids are growing up so quickly without tools like common sense.
"So you have 13-year-old boys smoking crack cocaine, whereas 15 years ago they might have been smoking cigarettes."
MacIntyre, 41, who moved to the BBC in 1993, worked for World In Action before fronting MacIntyre Undercover.
,clever though
