FOREIGNERS COMMIT 20 PER CENT OF CRIME IN LONDON, SAY POLICE AND SECOND IN THE LIST BEING JAMAICANS.

FFBJ is not in a position to dispute the figures as reported in the Evening Standard London Lite 14.08.07 without hard facts but what is very concerning is the tendency for many persons who are black and who commits a crime in the UK to be first classified as Jamaicans and then to be proven otherwise after.

It is noted that the report said "...published a list of the top twenty nationalities accused of crime in the English Capital" the key word here is "accused" being accused is different from being charged and held guilty.

1. We would hesitate to get excited over this report and would exercise caution until we are provided with the following information:

2. In this report it appears from the statistics published that it is representative of persons who are the accused, not those found guilty in a court of law.

3. Of the Jamaican group referred to, there needs to be a breakdown as follows: a) Are they Jamaicans by birth? B) Jamaicans by descent? C) Jamaicans Naturalised as British Citizens or persons simply calling themselves Jamaicans.

As said before, while the figures are not refuted it would be very interesting to see the full breakdown of them. FFBJ under the under the Freedom of Information Act will be requesting a full breakdown of the figures from the Metropolitan Police in order to analyse them. But shouldn't the real headline be 'Foreigners less likely to commit crime than the British' considering there are more than 20% foreigners of the total London population? Again looking at it from another perspective one third of London's population is foreign-born, so surely this means foreigners are in fact less likely to be committing crimes than the population as a whole. Put it another way, the two-thirds of the population of London who are British-born are committing 80 per cent of crime!

One may play devil's advocate to argue that since foreigners constitute 31% of the population of London and apparently only commit 20% of the crimes, the clear policy implications is that to reduce the crime rate, immigration should be greatly encouraged. FFBJ and the Jamaican community at the same time will not condone any crime by Jamaicans or any other nationals in the Britain.

Finally, FFBJ is committed to see a positive Jamaica and maintain that the majority of Jamaicans in the UK are law abiding people who have contributed to the development of the British society over the years. Therefore this report need to be placed in context and analyse properly as it is doesn't appear to be as detrimental as reported by those who may have an agenda against Jamaicans in the Evening Standard London Lite.