Editing Chris Grayling (section)

====Comparing Moss Side to ''The Wire''====
As Shadow Home Secretary, Grayling provoked controversy in August 2009 when he compared [[Manchester]]'s [[Moss Side]] area to the American TV crime drama ''[[The Wire]]''. His comments received an angry response from some Manchester locals and criticism from the police.<ref name="men260809">{{cite news|date=26 August 2009|title=Grayling's comments on Moss Side condemned|first= Chris|last= Osuh |url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1133692_graylings_comments_on_moss_side_condemned|work=[[Manchester Evening News]]|access-date=12 December 2009}}</ref><ref name="bbc01">{{cite news|date=25 August 2009|title=Anger at Tory's Wire comparison |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8221231.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=12 December 2009}}</ref> Having been out on patrol for a day with the police, observing the results of a shooting at a house, he described himself as having witnessed an "urban war". Police responded that gang-related shootings in [[Greater Manchester]] had fallen by 82 per cent from the previous year and that to speak of "urban war" was "sensationalistic".<ref name="men260809"/>

A local councillor, Roy Walters, complained of Moss Side unfairly being a "negative target" due to historical associations.<ref name="men260809"/> Defending his comments, Grayling said, "I didn't say Moss Side equals Baltimore. What I said is that we have in Moss Side symptoms of a gang conflict in this country which I find profoundly disturbing."<ref name="bbc01" /> Baltimore, with a population of about 600,000, was noted as having 191 gun related murders in the previous year, in comparison to Moss Side, population 17,537, which had none.<ref name="men260809"/>