Teenage Thugs "brick" a 4-year-old. Violent Britain four times more dangerous than America.

We Brits are snobby folk.

Whenever there's a school shooting, or other gun-related tragedy in the United States, we like to shake our heads and mumble "only in America" - because those yanks are a terribly uncivilized lot, and such things are to be expected in their "wild west" gun culture.

But I'm starting to feel that Britain's earned her own reputation for a type of crime that happens "only in Britain."

It's the kind of callous, casual and totally unnecessary violent that seems pandemic on our streets.

The latest example is this one, from Grimsby:

A TEENAGER has been arrested after a four-year-old girl's face was shattered when she was hit by a BRICK. Full story here.

Apparently a dad shouted at some kids who were kicking a football off the side of his van - which is pretty antisocial behavior to begin with. So outraged by this, the gang of teenagers then decided to teach this chap a lesson and lobbed a brick into the face of his four year old.

"The 4-year-old, who was strapped into a passenger seat, was knocked out, suffered a broken nose, lost two front teeth and was badly bruised."

It is one of the most disgusting things I've ever read - but entirely typical for the UK. Stabbings, beatings and other thuggish behavior seem to be the norm these days - and the little shits responsible never seem to be held accountable for their actions (and nor do their parents.)

I posted this one Facebook yesterday and got some fairly typical responses - with people pointing out that you don't read about gun crimes or murders with as much frequency as you do in the states. But was that a fair comparison?

Apparently not - because when you factor in aggravated assault, rape, stabbings, beatings and all other crime classified as "violent" - including murder and gun crime - dear old Britain winds up with a ranking four times worse than the United States.

Yes, you're four times more likely to be the victim of violent crime in 'safe' Britain than you are in 'unsafe' America. No wonder I've felt safer walking through the streets of Manhattan at 4am than I ever did the streets of Portsmouth at 12 in the afternoon.