Ahh, my favourite subject.
But here I mean Police Incident signs. Anyone who lives or works in London will know the ones I mean. Big yellow signs with large black writing that say things like “MURDER”, followed by “Male attacked and murdered outside KFC at 11.30pm, Thursday . . Call Police on . . .” I used to wander down the Walworth Road and count them. “ATTEMPTED MURDER”, “ROBBERY”, “SEXUAL ASSUALT”. Sometimes I’d see as many as half a dozen on a ten minute walk, but it’s not like I live in Beruit or anything. These signs would be up for weeks. I’m sure most other metropolitan areas don’t do this. I.E. advertise crime.
A couple of days ago a girl was due to meet me at an apartment I was renting out. I had told her to take the short walk across the park. At about the time we were due to meet she calls. “Is it safe to walk across the park?” she asks. “Sure,” I reply, ” I’ve done it for years, never a problem. ” She pauses, then “So why is there a big yellow sign saying RAPE?”
She passed on the apartment.
BTW I wanted to post a picture of one of these signs. Unbelievably there are none on the net whatsoever. I’m flabberghasted and will remedy that as soon as I get the chance.
Once in writing my novel I wanted to find out what the milestones in Suffolk were like. The net revealed not only many pictures, but also a site devolted to every milestone in the county with pictures, descriptions, history, the works.
Here’s one:
So maybe I should start a site for metropolitan police incident signs.
UPDATE
a sign (terrible picture) captured on my way home tonight:
