The Ipswich Ripper??

[Jaggy Jai]

Is it me are we taking the activities of this killer alittle too lightly, in the space of afew weeks he/they? have killed countless women. In the matter of days.

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well it's not countless, it's 5 so far and police have yet to confirm whether there is more than 1 killer as the modus operandi appear to be different in some cases.
As for taking it lightly, I think the constabulary and people of Ipswich would disagree, what with the increased patrols, door to door questioning which is going on. We've already had one paper offering a £250,000 reward for information leading to their whereabouts & arrest so I would say there's a quite a big fuss (and rightly so) being made about the "Ipswich Ripper"

[the_faery_queen]

killed more women than jack ever did
i think it's awful. it makes me cry. these women had families, children, and it's got to be so hard for them. and i hate how the media keeps saying, they may be prostutiues, but, as though the idea that they're prostitues makes them less than other women and so they have to keep reminding us that they were human too. i guess to some people they were less, somehow.

there's definetly a big fuss going on. but there are also the jokes. i dunno, call me old fashioned and dull, but i don't thin it's EVER funny to make jokes about things like this, or rape, or, well, anything, where someone has suffered a lot.

[Foxbat]

Margo Macdonald campaigned for a safe area for prostitutes in Edinburgh and this helped create a big drop in violence against them. Unfortunately, some locals didn't like these women in their area and the scheme was dropped. Perhaps it's time to look again at such things. Frankly, it doesn't matter what folk think of these women, the simple reality is that they need to be protected.

I think this guy in Ipswich is probably one of the worst we have come across in the UK. So many women in such a short space of time indicates a truly vicious character and nothing to joke about.

[chrispenycate]

The ability (and willingness) to make jokes about something that is too horrible to face head on is a long-standing, and I believe a critical element in the British psyche. It's not insensitivity as such; more a demonstration that the problem exists, but that straight talking isn't going to do anything to help.

[sanityassassin]

I heard somewhere the police are also looking into a murder a few years ago which was similar in MO could become one of the worst serial killers Britain has ever seen

[the_faery_queen]

i don't think jokes help particularly either. i just think it's disrespectful and after a while they become ingrained into our culture. like the idea of men being raped in prison. they had that joke in friends (good luck chandler) and i think it's really wrong to make light of something that is a serious problem.

i think prostuituion needs to be treated the way it is in holland and norway. legal, accessable and with protection. a friend of mine in norway (so im hoping he wasn't fibbing) told me that prostitues there have to sign a consent form if they want a pimp. that is, pimps are not the general way of doing things. they have to say that they freely choose that guy, that they're not on drugs and so on. and i think it's a better way all around, to have the women working in a proper place, looking after each other, hiring men to look after them, not working for the men, as seems to happen. and just be treated like people, which they are!

[jackokent]

Originally Posted by the_faery_queen

i don't think jokes help particularly either. i just think it's disrespectful and after a while they become ingrained into our culture. like the idea of men being raped in prison. they had that joke in friends (good luck chandler) and i think it's really wrong to make light of something that is a serious problem.

i think prostuituion needs to be treated the way it is in holland and norway. legal, accessable and with protection. a friend of mine in norway (so im hoping he wasn't fibbing) told me that prostitues there have to sign a consent form if they want a pimp. that is, pimps are not the general way of doing things. they have to say that they freely choose that guy, that they're not on drugs and so on. and i think it's a better way all around, to have the women working in a proper place, looking after each other, hiring men to look after them, not working for the men, as seems to happen. and just be treated like people, which they are!

I agree with the handling of prostitution but I also think that humour is a very powerful and effective way of dealing with things that are too awful to deal with normally. I don't think that's unhealthy and i don't think people who share the jokes care any less than those who don't. It's like people making jokes at a funeral or a wake, it's a normal part of coming to terms, and often things feel horribly, inappropriately more funny at these times. We should stop feeling guilty about this sort of thing in my view. It doesn't harm anyone.

[the_faery_queen]

well, i disagree. i think it leads to part of the whole desensitation of society generally. a way to seperate us from the horrible things, make light of it, means it doesn't matter. but that's just my view and i dont' want to get off topic with this now, so i will shut me yap

[SpaceShip]

I know there are a lot of people who want drugs legalised and, without wishing to open a large can of worms, the media have said that the upsurge in women becoming prostitutes is because they are so hooked on drugs that they will take the chance on who they pick up because they need their next fix. I, personally, don't think drugs should be legalised. And rather than providing safe places for prostitutes to ply their trade, I think more teaching needs to be given to kids at an earlier age to show them just what drugs do and how addictive they can quickly become.

What is happening to the women of Ipswich is terrible. Will it stop there?

[nixie]

I agree that prostitution should be legalised. It would lessen the danger to prostitues, but you will still get girls who won't want to work in a legalised brothel nor will it solve the problem of under aged girls.Hopefully the police will soon find the murderer/murderers.

I'm also in agreement with Jackonet, sometimes its easier to deal with if you can look at the lighter side.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by nixie

I agree that prostitution should be legalised. It would lessen the danger to prostitues, but you will still get girls who won't want to work in a legalised brothel nor will it solve the problem of under aged girls.Hopefully the police will soon find the murderer/murderers.

I'm also in agreement with Jackonet, sometimes its easier to deal with if you can look at the lighter side.

While I am not nor ever have been in the area directly involved, I hope you don't mind if I post a thought or two. I've long felt that prostitution should be legalized with the addition of requiring health testing, and finding some way to provide medical benefits for those providing the service. Prostitution is simply never going to cease, and it's better to deal with it realistically (and thereby lower the risk to both the prostitutes -- of whichever sex -- and the health risks to the community at large).

And on the subject of the jokes -- however much they may grate on the nerves they, like all humor, are an "escape mechanism", as Jackokent says, a way of dealing with things too horrifying for many to cope with when expressed nakedly; bluntly, an emotional survival tool. That they are often tacky, tasteless, and offensive to others does not change the fact that this is the purpose they serve. Hence the prevalence of jokes about cannibalism that cropped up here in the U.S. after Ed Gein's actions came to light; or following Dahmer's arrest; or the jokes about deformed children after what happened with thalidomide; dealt with nakedly, these things simply lead, for a majority of people, to an overpowering sense of horror and helplessness and fear, and the jokes allow them to maintain enough of an equilibrium to go on with life rather than being paralyzed by what's happening around them.

But what appalls me is that I've not heard that much about this over here. Granted, I don't listen that much to the popular media, but I'd have still expected to see something about it ... which I haven't, until it was brought up on CN. (This is not to say that there haven't been stories about it in the news; just that they haven't been given enough notice for me to even be aware of the whole thing, unlike many much more ephemeral bits of "news".) That, to me, is a horrifying example of desensitization, as it disregards these women and what has happened to them so much as to remove even the human concern necessary to create a jest.

[j. d. worthington]

Ah, finally! I've just seen a story on the matter. Damned shame it's taken this many to get noticed, but at least now they are being talked about over here....

[HappyHippo]

I think it's being a bit sensationalised, really. The media have taken the ball and run with it. The police are being very cautious with the details they're releasing, and it seems to me the press is whipping up a frenzy, and escalating things. It may or may not be one person, but getting hysterical about a 'ripper' is panic-mongering, I think.

Prostitution should be legal, and safe. There will always be those who want to buy or sell sex, and if it's legal, there's less risk to everyone involved in the transaction. It's really a bit of a no-brainer. If the girls who have been killed had worked in a brothel which was legal, they could be licensed, there could be a discreet way of keeping track of their clientel, it would be much more sensible.

My husband grew up in Ipswich, and this whole thing's really shocked him. He used to go on picinics in the area where the last body was found. It's strange, because (no offence) this is more the kind of thing you would imagine happening in America, not a place in England which is still rather Olde Worlde and slow.

[lou.mor432]

I have to say, look at Amsterdam. It is legal to smoke weed, and you can go into countless strip-parlours, or sex shops. The violence over there is minimal. Most offences are not commited towards prostitutes, or even by them. Maybe we (I mean as a nation overall) should consider the consequences of the actions of our government. These are things not to be taken lightly. In the most (I mean this sincerely) unfortunate event, one of the women could be related to you. How would that make YOU feel?