Glassing

Glassing is a physical attack using a glass as a weapon. Glassing can occur at bars or pubs where alcohol is served, and a drinking glass or bottle is available as a weapon. The most common method of glassing involves the attacker smashing an intact glass in the face of the victim. However the glass may be smashed prior to the attack, and then gripped by the remaining base of the glass or neck of the bottle with the broken shards protruding outwards.

Common injuries resulting from glassings are heavy blood loss, permanent scarring, disfigurement and loss of sight through eye injury.

In the United Kingdom, there are more than 5,000 glassing attacks each year. In 2000, following a series a glassing attacks in Manchester, Greater Manchester Police and the Manchester Evening News launched a campaign Safe Glass Safe City promoting the use of toughened glass in pubs and clubs to prevent such attacks.

In Science Fiction

The term "glassing" is also used in some works of science fiction to refer to bombarding an area, e.g. with nuclear ordnance or fictional high-powered energy weapons (such as those often found on starships in such works), with enough energy to indiscriminately annihilate everything in a target area (typically at least the size of a few city blocks) and even fuse topsoil into glass. For example in 'Starship Troopers' the term Glassing is used to refer to what the Federation Fleet does to the surface of the planet, destroying most life on the surface, before sending in Mobile Infantry to destroy or 'mop up' the remaining survivors. See glass parking lot.

In the Halo universe, the Covenant use high-powered plasma superweapons to glass entire human planet-colonies and a part of Africa.

References

Further reading

• "Surgeon on glass bottle "weapon"". BBC News, .
• "Glassed". Risky Single Occasion Drinking. BBC News, .
• Brian Ferguson "Bars face glass ban in violence crackdown". Edinburgh Evening News. The Scotsman, .
• Stephen Stewart and Alison Chiesa "Raise your glasses ... plastic cups rule is lifted". The Herald. Newsquest, .