Top marks to Strathy Polis

There was a violent incident in my tenement building last night. Without going into too much detail, there was a fight in a flat below me that involved front doors kicked in, broken glass, screams, knives and lots of blood.

We phoned the police, and when I went down to see what was going on, I was confronted with a young woman leaving the flat, covered in blood. I let the police into the close and sat with the woman until it was all over.

From phoning 999, it took exactly two minutes for the first officers to arrive. Within 10 minutes, there were more than 10 on the scene. They used pepper spray to stop the fight and lead the belligerent parties away. An NHS ambulance was there within half an hour to tend to the wounded. In the end, no one was dangerously hurt, and it was all over within an hour.

The priority of the police was a) Control the situation b) Restrain the violent characters c) Check that everyone is OK d) Take witness statements.

They did this excellently, and with a high degree of professionalism. Even the culprits got medical attention before being taken away. As a Leftist, I have a strong negative bias against the police – because my experience of them has usually been the heavy-handed repression of protest. It was a really good experience for me to see Strathclyde Police protecting people from harm.

Frankly, I don’t care what happens next.I don’t care whether anyone is charged and goes to jail. What is important is that the police were able to step in and prevent a dangerous situation from escalating. Top marks to Strathy Polis there.

None of this, of course, cost anyone any money.

Some people would be freaked out by a situation like this, and wouldn’t feel safe in their homes. On the contrary, I feel reassured – because even when things go dangerously wrong, this society has the capacity to step in and deal with it quickly and cleanly.

I have been involved in similar violent situations in South Africa. The police simply don’t come, or at least not quickly enough to be of any practical use. When they do come, they are likely to arrest the wrong people, based on their race and class prejudice, rather than listening to witnesses. They are also likely to use it as an excuse for a bit of a fight. If you can afford armed response, they’ll probably be there quicker, but there’s no guarantee that the response will be professional and proportionate, and you might have to live with the guilt of seeing people bludgeoned down by security guards you hired.

An ambulance won’t come either, unless you have private medical insurance. In South Africa you face the choice between shutting your ears to the screams or intervening yourself, neither of which are particularly attractive options. It’s lead me to wander into situations, scared stiff, with a meat cleaver in hand, trying to convince everyone to calm down and go home.

Unlike many expat South Africans, crime was not a factor that lead to me leaving the country – it was just an impulse to travel. My experience of crime in the 10 years I lived in Cape Town was probably quite average: I have been robbed at gunpoint twice, and threatened with a knife about five times. Once I escaped a gang by jumping out of a train window; another time by running into a corner shop. I’ve also had plenty of break ins, and had to intervene in a number potentially dangerous situations.

I resented the fact that I wasn’t safe, but I learned to live with it, and even convinced myself that being responsible for my own safety gave me a visceral sense of living on the edge. I was a young man, and young men are immortal.

It was only after I had lived in the UK for a while I realised that – like many South Africans – I was probably suffering from a bit of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I first noticed it when a car backfired and I instinctively dropped to the pavement, while everyone around me looked confused.

There is violent crime everywhere, though crime in South Africa is an order of magnitude higher than it is here. Glasgow is supposed to be the most dangerous city in Western Europe, but I feel safe. To be fair, I live in Shawlands, not Easterhouse. My neighbourhood is mostly thirty something white collar workers, and apart from the usual weekend exuberance, things are usually pretty quiet. The important difference between Glasgow and Cape Town is not the crime rate, though: it’s the fact that Glasgow can deal with crime.

I really would like to move back to South Africa, because it’s my home. But do I really want to live in a country where your right to safety and medical treatment is privatised, and dependent on your ability to pay? I really don’t know.

Functional emergency services are the sign of a civilised society. South Africa is poorer than Scotland, but we can do a lot better. And in the UK, we must do everything we can to protect them from the Tories.

They save lives.