Just to be clear, the OP (@TacticalCoder) originally wrote this:

> “People are scared of what's going on. Both criminality and religious extremism are rising at a more than alarming rate.”

He then edited the comment once I called him out on its veiled racism and once he'd seen the thread following from that (the discussion around ONS statistics where I highlight that crime is generally down, just not sexual offences). He then changed his comment to:

> "They're super scared because a great many people have had enough. Crimes numbers, including rapes, are through the roof in the UK"

I realise that @vidarh replied to the updated text. But there are a couple of points:

1. If you go to the Office for National Statistics Crime in England and Wales report [1], you'll see the following comment:

"Trends in police recorded sexual offences should be interpreted with caution as improvements in recording practices and increased reporting by victims have contributed to increases in recent years. For further information, see Section 19: Data sources and quality."

So, an increase in the numbers doesn't necessarily mean actual an increase. It would also explain why the percentage of solved (sexual) crimes is decreasing.

2. Even if there was an actual increase, that doesn't change the fact that crime is down overall (which counters the original statement by @TacticalCoder)

3. It also doesn't invalidate @vidarh's link which shows crime in the UK is low compared to other nations. So, if some areas have increased, then the overall picture is still relatively good for the UK. It certainly doesn't fit what @TacticalCoder originally wrote: "criminality and religious extremism are rising at a more than alarming rate".

Editing the comment from the one that was called-out to a whole new statement, that maps onto the one crime stat that is actually going in the wrong direction (but might not be due to changes in how its measured), is extremely disingenuous.

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeand...