THE first thing to grasp when talking about knives is a sense of perspective. Yes, there have been 19 teenagers killed in street violence in London this year, and six people were stabbed to death in just one five-day period.
But that is London.
What Tory leader David Cameron has called a knife epidemic is much worse in the capital where knife crime has risen at three times the rate of the rest of England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have even seen reductions in the number of stabbing victims.
So it is folly to live in fear of a teen knife culture of epidemic proportions in this island.
The majority of such crimes to pass through the courts recently have been much older men: the 24-year-old who threatened his landlady, the 25-year-old who didn’t like his stepfather telling him to turn down his music, the 25-year-old disarmed in a nightclub by a female bouncer, and even a 59-year-old who jumped off a ladder in Alderney brandishing a knife at his daughter’s partner.
Indeed, only one recent crime really fits the London profile – the murder of James Dean in the High Street by a 19-year-old. And it is that awful death which casts a massive shadow over all consideration of this matter.
The police and Home Department’s responses to that killing have been swift and firm. A knife amnesty courageously inspired by the Dean family brought more than 500 knives off the street. Intriguingly, in the context of the proposed legislation, while the haul included flick knives and samurai swords most were kitchen knives.
That was followed in September by a drug and knife crackdown where police sought to arrest anyone carrying an offensive weapon in Town.
None was found and no arrests were made. Police said afterwards that they hoped the exercise would show that the danger of knives was not as prevalent as people feared.
So while the proposals announced today by Home are to be welcomed, they must be put into their proper context as a pro-active measure designed to inoculate the island against an outside epidemic.
Knife law is a pro-active measure
THE first thing to grasp when talking about knives is a sense of perspective. Yes, there have been 19 teenagers killed in street violence in London this year, and six people were stabbed to death in just one five-day period.
But that is London.
What Tory leader David Cameron has called a knife epidemic is much worse in the capital where knife crime has risen at three times the rate of the rest of England. Scotland and Northern Ireland have even seen reductions in the number of stabbing victims.
So it is folly to live in fear of a teen knife culture of epidemic proportions in this island.
The majority of such crimes to pass through the courts recently have been much older men: the 24-year-old who threatened his landlady, the 25-year-old who didn’t like his stepfather telling him to turn down his music, the 25-year-old disarmed in a nightclub by a female bouncer, and even a 59-year-old who jumped off a ladder in Alderney brandishing a knife at his daughter’s partner.
Indeed, only one recent crime really fits the London profile – the murder of James Dean in the High Street by a 19-year-old. And it is that awful death which casts a massive shadow over all consideration of this matter.
The police and Home Department’s responses to that killing have been swift and firm. A knife amnesty courageously inspired by the Dean family brought more than 500 knives off the street. Intriguingly, in the context of the proposed legislation, while the haul included flick knives and samurai swords most were kitchen knives.
That was followed in September by a drug and knife crackdown where police sought to arrest anyone carrying an offensive weapon in Town.
None was found and no arrests were made. Police said afterwards that they hoped the exercise would show that the danger of knives was not as prevalent as people feared.
So while the proposals announced today by Home are to be welcomed, they must be put into their proper context as a pro-active measure designed to inoculate the island against an outside epidemic.
Article posted on 11th July, 2008 - 2.29pm