“The Watchtower”​—Aid in Crime Prevention

NAOMI, a seven-year-old girl living in Manchester, England, excitedly wrote to the London office of the Watch Tower Society: “When I went into our Post Office, I saw a big poster of one of our magazines, the one of the lady having her handbag stolen by a man with a knife. The Greater Manchester police have copied it to warn people about muggings!” What is the story behind this unusual crime-prevention poster?

While witnessing on a Manchester street, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses placed with a man a copy of the November 1, 1984, issue of The Watchtower with the theme “Our Critical Times​—Why So Violent?” The gentleman put the magazine in his pocket, but he was mugged on his way home. As he sat recovering from the shock of the event, he remembered the magazine and began to read it. When visited by an officer of the Police Crime Prevention Department, he showed him the magazine, commenting that he never thought he would be a mugging victim himself.

The police officer was greatly impressed by the cover photograph, saying that it contained in graphic detail all that was necessary to alert the public to the dangers of mugging. Permission to reproduce the picture as a crime-prevention poster was readily granted, resulting in the distribution of 3,000 of them in the Greater Manchester area.