Crime in Histalpol

Crime in Histalpol describes acts of violent and non-violent crime that take place in the Republic of Histalpol. Responsibility for crime in Histalpol is controlled by the Department of Infrastructure and predominantly by the Ministry of Security and Crime which runs the justice system including the courts and prisons of Histalpol. The reducing and preventing of crime is spread across multiple Ministries in the Department of Humanities including the Ministry of Justice as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Education in the educating of children to avoid lives of crime and also runs programmes to get children out of the many organised crime groups in Histalpol.

Figures released in 2011/2012 shows a slow decrease of crime in Histalpol from the peak during the Decades of Suspension, with spikes at the start and end of the Black Depression corresponding with the banning of foreign imports in 1992 and the return of foreign trading under the government of Borgia Malstrone in 2008, the most recent spike in crime in Histalpol.

History
During WW2, Histalpol initiated blackouts at a scale like London during the Blitz by the Axis forces. Histalpol initiated these out of fear of an attack on mainland Histalpol after the islands were taken by Nazi forces, this was to protect the major cities with large amounts of civilians, government buildings and industrial centres from aerial bombing. The blackouts though caused a very large rise in minor and major crimes. Rates of robbery, vandalism and illegal scavenging from destroyed shops and houses sky-rocketed because of the blackouts as nobody was on the streets and the blackout meant that no light was produced for anybody to spot the perpetrators in unless at close distance.

Meanwhile there was only a slight small rise in major crimes such as assault, armed robbery and murder. All this happened on the surface and not in the bunkers leading to the small rise, as well as the general feeling at the time of insecurity that they will survive the crime, but murders still rose and because of the attacks, it was hard to tell if the deaths of civilians was because of the bombings or a murder, especially with the investigative technology at the time.

At the end of WW2, the rise of organised crime started with the creation of such groups by Histalian soldiers. This mainly occurred in the islands for a start as they felt they had no part in the war because they were overpowered by the Nazi forces. They also did this to continue the extreme life style, to regain respect from the public and to also keep a steady flow of money to the family as no money was able to be supplied to the families of the soldiers during the war. Crimes started with gun smuggling and the basic robbing of stores for money and often food for their families, any other crime committed was for the sustainability of themselves and the family, very rarely was a murder, assault or robbery of a luxury item like a car committed by one of the gangs created.

Between 1945 when WW2 ended and the rise of organised crime started, and 1960 when the Irish Troubles started, the slow return to a normal economy caused the organised groups to either disband, which most did as the rate of organised crimes committed reduced by around 80%, or they would increase in their severity of the crimes either branching into the smuggling of illegal items, or the manipulation of civilians for gain in money or at worse the services of hired killings, armed robbery, assault or basic murders to terrorise civilians. This largely increased over a small amount of time (15 years) to the start of the Troubles, which inspired some of the organised crime groups to seize a chance to establish more money for their doings. This brought on the infamous Decades of Suspension.

The organised crime groups split into 2 forms, one supplying arms and bomb material though smuggling to many branches of the the Provisional IRA and the Real IRA. The other direction the groups could have taken was to blackmail local councils and businesses though the creation of multiple attacks, taking inspiration from the Troubles in having minimum casualties through informing police and other sources who would then phone the police, most commonly if not the police then local newspapers.

They planned to piggy-back off the terrorist attacks by the IRA by creating their own attacks in Histalpol then blackmailing companies and councils to stop attacking their premises and at the time create fear in the public to buy guns and weapons from their units.

Even though the attacks were usually without casualties or with as minimal casualties as possible, there were occasions where casualties were mass. The worst attack in the Decades of Suspension occurred in 1977 and was aimed at the government as one of the blackmail plots, especially aimed at the then Ministry of Transport. This was not performed by one of the main organised crime groups who participated in this form with no fear to cause deaths to get their points across better thus leading to more business for their group in selling weapons. targets included rural stations, bridges, rail tracks, tunnels and public buses. The attacks created mass panic as the attacks were larger than anybody had participated with over 50 bombs all over Mainland Histalpol. the largest amount of death was when 2 mainline trains derailed at different sections. the death toll all together was 264, the highest death toll of any attack in Histalpol yet.

After this attack in 1977, the attacks rose in fatalities but the frequency of attacks sharply fell as the spin-off organised crime groups gained a foothold on other groups who didn't want casualties in there attacks.

it was only in 1990 they the government started a crack down on these spin-off groups and organised crime in a general which decreased it's presence dramatically but had not made it cease to exist in Histalpol. This concluded with a ceasefire agreement from remaining spin-off groups and a few original organised crime groups in August 21st 1992 which was the Forstole Agreement. Terrorism for this purpose has not arose since the agreement but they still have the capability of re-emerging. As of now, the only activities any organised crime cells would do would commit are in other areas such as prostitiution, smuggling and the occasional murder.

In recent years, the fall in organised crime has brought up a rise in terrorism and xenophobic attacks against any joining to any sort of union. But these terrorist attacks are few and far between, with only 3 happening since 2000. Major crime from organised crime groups has also fallen very rapidly since the Forstole Agreement in 1992, but when organised crime does surface, it surfaces with massive consequences, as seen with the shootout between the Renné gangs of Diamondbacks and the BloodJacks and also the crisis with the arrest of the Ziyad Brothers and their group with connections to terrorism in the Middle-East, both in 2013.

Terrorism
before the 1960s, Terrorism was extremely rare in Histalpol, almost non-existent apart from a scarce bomb plots. But the amount of terrorist attacks rose with the Decades of Suspension when most of the organised groups who committed terrorism was listed by the government of the time as official terrorist cells. at the end of the Decades of Suspension, the list of terrorist cells recognised by the government was at count 15 including the spin-off terror cells (which had a larger number than the original organised crime groups).

At the end of The Black Depression at 2008 with the new government headed by Borgia Malstrone with foreign companies being allowed back in for business, leisure, immigration and other reasons, supporters of the Histalpol Parti Isolationist who were the party in power at the time of Prime Minister Hayden Bolton split off from the group and created protest groups against the allowing of foreigners into Histalpol and Histalpol's involvement in foreign affairs. These protest groups then had branches of more extremist supporters who created the Righteous Independence Legion who are one of the only active terrorist cells recognised by the government of the 21st century and are responsible for the 2010 Bastilia International Airport Bombing which killed 68 people at a terminal via a car bomb. Between 2010 and 2013 they have been quiet until a bombing in 2013 that killed 17.

There are also occurrences of terrorism that are not by Histalian terrorist cells in Histalpol of recent since 2000. this includes a terrorism plot by a lone wolf to detonate a bomb during a football match in Renné. He was discovered to be a supporter of making Histalpol a monarchy but did not fit with being in a terrorist cell and was proven to be a lone wolf after investigations. This is the only lone wolf attack to happen in Histalpol after 2000, the last attacks being during the Decades of Suspension.

Travel Status Ratings
The Travel Status Ratings were implemented by the government of Histalpol in 1972 to alert emergency services, tourists and residents in Histalpol about on-going events including crimes of varied significance. There are 7 levels of threat but only 4 concern crimes that will occur or are occurring. The highest level that the rating can reach is 5* which has only been achieved 3 times, after a series of deadly attacks on public transport in 1977, after the September 11 attacks, on 7 July 2005 after the 7 July 2005 London bombings and an attack on Bastilia International Airport which killed 16 people in 2010.

Significant crimes/criminals in Histalpol
There have been many crimed that have occurred in Histalpol but only a few are widely known in Histalpol for their large scale, shock or fear caused to the public. These crimes are listed below in chronological order.


 * 16 September 1977 - 164 deaths from a terrorist attack on multiple trains and buses across Histalpol, largest death toll from a terrorist attack in Histalpol.


 * 1979-1985 - Reverend Timothy Wrenn killed 16 people in a 16 year period from his church at Farlyborough Histalpol, most prolific serial killer in Histalpol.


 * 15 July 1993 - George Debault murdered 12 people in the Kilmardford MarCus Massacre, largest rampage killing in Histalpol and also destroyed the store.


 * 1997-1998 - Fred Bardleby raped and killed 4 7-year-olds in one year before being caught by police.


 * 10 February 2010 - 16 deaths from a terrorist attack on Bastilia International Airport by the Righteous Independence Legion.


 * 5 May 2013 - David Owl killed 4 people and injured 18 including his wife in an alcohol fuelled massacre involving vehicular mass murder.


 * 5 June 2013 - 17 Deaths at a military parade bombed by the Righteous Independence Legion.

Gun laws
Histalpol practises strict gun controls, brought on primarily by the Dunblane massacre (1996) and the Kilmardford MarCus Massacre (1997). The laws that were brought on by both of them forbid the owning of handguns and rifles of any calibre. Before the act that forbid that, the Forstole Agreement at the end of the Decades of Suspension banned the use of any automatic weapon.

Currently, there are no aspects of owning a shotgun that is forbidden, but they are severely restricted by a large amount of regulations. Licences are needed for shotguns but before the licence is offered, the person must prove that they work in the agriculture industry as they are the only ones allowed a gun apart from hunters, who must show a valid hunting licence which have their own strict rules and regulations. Only 2 shotguns can be owned at any one time per house hold and ownership of more can be prosecutable. Psychological evaluations are done every 2 years after the issuing of the licence for owning a shotgun.

Despite these gun laws, the smuggling of handguns and rifles is a major problem alongside the sales of those guns by organised crime groups, one of the largest problems for Histalian politics concerning organised crime.