Knife crime

[gazza]

Just got up after working nights and watching Sky News. Seems that a bloke has just been stabbed to death in Bolton and another guy is seriously ill after being stabbed at T in the Park festival. The news recently seems to be awash with stabbing stories. My own view is that it has always been like this (certainly for the last 2 years) but is only now that the media have picked up on it that so many stories are coming out. There really is so many stabbings and in the past not many of them have been reported.

Have just watched Jacqui Smith () interview and she has stated they are raising the minimum sentance for carrying an offensive weapon from 2 years to 4.

They are also going to send people caught with a knife into hospitals to see victims of stabbings.

They are also setting up youth "discussion" groups.

They are spending £3million on an advertising campaign.



How about we set a mandotory minimum sentance for anyone caught unlawfully carrying a knife ? If the MINIMUM sentance was a 12 month prison sentance would that be enough of a deterrant ?

Thoughts ?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by gazza

Just got up after working nights and watching Sky News. Seems that a bloke has just been stabbed to death in Bolton and another guy is seriously ill after being stabbed at T in the Park festival. The news recently seems to be awash with stabbing stories. My own view is that it has always been like this (certainly for the last 2 years) but is only now that the media have picked up on it that so many stories are coming out. There really is so many stabbings and in the past not many of them have been reported.

Have just watched Jacqui Smith () interview and she has stated they are raising the minimum sentance for carrying an offensive weapon from 2 years to 4.

They are also going to send people caught with a knife into hospitals to see victims of stabbings.

They are also setting up youth "discussion" groups.

They are spending £3million on an advertising campaign.



How about we set a mandotory minimum sentance for anyone caught unlawfully carrying a knife ? If the MINIMUM sentance was a 12 month prison sentance would that be enough of a deterrant ?

Thoughts ?

Funny thing is all the stuff she says they are not doing I swear they said they were doing 5 years ago?

Its shocking really is, I completely agree Gaz, HAS to be a mandatory sentance for anyone caught with a knife and maybe even a lot more money/protection/staff for the officers who have to go into these areas to search the people.

[Matt]

and also an end to any sort of racial profiling blocking he police doing thier job, if they want to search someone, they should be able too, without any repurcussions.

[Jonesy Knows]

I totally agree about a mandatory 12 month prison sentence if found carrying a knife! However it's the younger generation of people most of the time who carry them and what do we do with them? Young offenders homes or community service aren't a good enough deterrant.

[Sharpe1ne]

I think the stupidest thing is for them "to see the gruesome injuries of knife crime".
They don't give a feck, after watching horror films where people are slashed to ribbons, other stab injuries wouldn't look half as bad.Plus in the films they can have a knife plunged into them but they keep on fighting back.It's not gonna put anyone off and whose taking into account the cost of all these trips and the people that would have to accompany them.
People with knives are pure cowards what i'd like to see is all these youth offenders stuck into a big arena,give em some knives and then let em stab each other to death.

[Valiant23]

I don't know if I've ever told this story, so apologies if I have.

I was working one Friday night when I pulled up outside a pub near Keel Uni called The Golfers Arms. It was a good place for anyone who didn't want a town centre night out, but wanted more than a quiet pint in their local. I guess I'm saying it was one of those places that attracted all sorts and it was generally a good night in there.

Anyway, there were two groups outside this pub gesticulating towards one another, but nothing serious seemed to be happening.

Then all I saw was a lad from the younger group reach up to a much bigger man and he appeared to do nothing more than stroke his face. The next thing I know the younger lot dashed for the cab in front of me and shortly after the other group got in my car.

I'd gone about half a mile before anyone in the car realised that when the young un 'stroked' this blokes face he had a razor-blade flick-knife and had slashed his face open.

What horrified me most about this attack was the lack of apparent force in the lads gesture.

Whats the point in having minimum sentencing though? All it does is make the politicians sound as though they're being pro-active, while at the same time they do nothing but undermine justice, law and order at every other turn.

I'm sick of this liberal society and wish we had hardline politicians who actually gave a **** about Mr. Average. If we did and they said that we were having minimum sentencing then that'd be much better.

[Cassius Marcellus]

People with knives are pure cowards what i'd like to see is all these youth offenders stuck into a big arena,give em some knives and then let em stab each other to death.

I'll vote for that

[AJ]

Wasn't knife crime much worse in the 50s and 60s ?

[Pocket Lady]

I though that too AJ -

I thought that carrying guns was now more widespread.

I do believe that there is a lot more stabbings reported in the press these days.

[aliando]

the media attention mirrors that given to the suicides in the brigend county borough - it simply reflected the "ooooh" factor within society rather than the severity of what is really happening.

as for the sentencing, lets be fair here - its not just a knife that can cause injury. Again, I'll draw a similarity with the previous emphasis placed on phoning and driving. Yes its dangerous, but rather than focussing on safer driving practices, they singled out a solitary meida-driven factor and pushed legislation forward to (attempt to) gain positive media attention. Knives kill. So do guns. So do a million other things including fists. Will we remove fists once fighting breaks out? Perhaps this argument is a little petty but surely those who actually use a knife to harm or attempt to harm another individual should be heavily punished*?






* knife carrying is generally borne out of the need to protect oneself - this can be applied to people with violent partners, those being stalked etc etc - whilst the media image is that of gangs, its not the whole picture. Whether its growing in gang culture, we'll have to rely on individual opinions from the police as the media and the politicians certainly are not going to give an answer that you can trust.

[TheRat]

I'm not sure and have no facts, I'm simply putting this point out there. But crime like this is often gang related. I think the worrying thing at the moment is the people getting stabbed and the reasons for it possibly

[Cassius Marcellus]

In London, it's postcode wars.

You live in one part of London, Leyton for example (E.10) you don't wander across the border to Stratford (E.15) or Leytonstone (E.11)

But naturally, kids will wander, and that's when it starts.

You don't have to be in a gang, just be in the wrong area and run into a gang.

If this was applicable in the 60s I'd never have got to school

From Custom House (E.16) through Plaistow (E.13) to Upton Park (still E.13 but a different part, so a different gang)

It was bad enough getting past 3 senior schools twice a day in a fcuking green uniform. Thank fcuk kids didn't carry knives then or I'd be full of fecking holes

[kevsul]

Originally Posted by gazza

Just got up after working nights and watching Sky News. Seems that a bloke has just been stabbed to death in Bolton and another guy is seriously ill after being stabbed at T in the Park festival. The news recently seems to be awash with stabbing stories. My own view is that it has always been like this (certainly for the last 2 years) but is only now that the media have picked up on it that so many stories are coming out. There really is so many stabbings and in the past not many of them have been reported.

Have just watched Jacqui Smith () interview and she has stated they are raising the minimum sentance for carrying an offensive weapon from 2 years to 4.

They are also going to send people caught with a knife into hospitals to see victims of stabbings.

They are also setting up youth "discussion" groups.

They are spending £3million on an advertising campaign.



How about we set a mandotory minimum sentance for anyone caught unlawfully carrying a knife ? If the MINIMUM sentance was a 12 month prison sentance would that be enough of a deterrant ?

Thoughts ?

Thats not enough IMO, With prisons still bursting at the seams it's going to be difficult to impose i think.

Should be really harsh of knife and gun crime and give them big sentence's without parole.

And also get rid of this easy prison life, give them boot camp or agree we send them to prisons in America Nice thought but impossible

[Valiant23]

Already Jacqui Smith has started to water it down.

I heard her say that, "Even if offenders don't get a custodial sentence, they will be given a community service order that brings harsh awareness that the damage the crime brings"

Ooooooooooooohhh community service....Thats scary.

[Cassius Marcellus]

Originally Posted by Valiant23

Already Jacqui Smith has started to water it down.

I heard her say that, "Even if offenders don't get a custodial sentence, they will be given a community service order that brings harsh awareness that the damage the crime brings"

Ooooooooooooohhh community service....Thats scary.

That'll do for me.

I'll go and stab that cnut of a builder, right in the eyes.

[Sharpe1ne]

M.P's just don't seem to get that Community Service isn't a deterrent.They live in a world that is totally dissasociated from ours with all there body-guards,guaranteed wage and living accomodation and all the free fuel and the free cars.
When I was on community service it was the easiest thing i've ever done in my life, all i had to do was basically turn up for 1 days "work" a week which was cleaning up gardens for old people or helping them redecorate their houses.
Can't wait for them to introduce another "knife amnesty".
And the reasoning of "carrying a knife to protect themselves" is another old load of balls,it's like when our parents told us "if so-and-so jumped off a cliff would you follow them".
Another option would be to band them all together and send them in as the first wave in an attack on Afghanistan and say "here's your knives you hard bastards go and flush out those insurgents" then see how much they shit and piss themselves then.Why waste British troops when we can use these scum.

[ubermonkey1]

love that pic of her in a stab vest walking the streets ,really shows what a good job labour have done in keeping the streets safe

[gazza]

Decent article about a stab victim in todays BBC.......

Hospital visits 'a soft option'

Jack said those who carried knives had thought about stabbing someone The government has been accused of ditching plans, reported at the weekend, to make people caught carrying knives visit stabbing victims in hospital to show them the potential consequences. Speaking before the home secretary denied such plans had existed in the first place, one victim told BBC News such visits would not be a punishment and there should be no second chances. Jack Hancock, from Wirral, was stabbed in the chest almost two years ago while at university. The 22-year-old was initially critically ill and then in and out of hospital for three months, before eventually having to undergo a heart bypass operation. He believes a hospital visit from a potential offender might be too much for a victim and their family to cope with. "When I woke up in hospital I was unaware of everything that had happened since I'd been stabbed," he said. "I didn't know how ill I'd been and what my family had been through. "The police had sent for my parents in the middle of the night and taken them to the hospital and they didn't know if I was going to make it." If they had longer sentences for people carrying knives - just carrying them - a couple of years or something, they wouldn't do it Garry, jailed for attempted murder Knife attacker's view On the day he was attacked, Jack had been organising a freshers' event at a bar in Stockton-on-Tees for Durham University and his attacker had been turned away. When Jack tried to talk to him, he was stabbed. His heart was damaged, his lung collapsed and he lost pints of blood. He said he had not been able to grasp the enormity of his injuries and the repercussions on his life, let alone explain them to someone else. He said it would be "too raw" for a victim and their family to see a knife carrier so soon after an attack. "It may offer the best shock value, but it wouldn't be best for me in terms of my recovery. And how do we know how much good it would actually do? "Lots of these people who carry knives are in a type of gang culture. They've probably seen it all before. "They will have seen people stabbed or even know someone who died. So why would seeing someone who has no emotional link with them jolt them out of that mindset?" Jack said the threat of knife crime should be taken much more seriously. 'Softer attitude' "I think the only real way to stop knife crime is to make examples of people caught carrying them - it's too late after they've stabbed someone. "This idea of a hospital visit is a let-off. They only need to use the knife once to kill. "If someone has put a knife in their pocket, they have thought about stabbing someone, it's that simple - there can be no second chances." He added: "I didn't get a second chance, my injuries and the impact on my life can never be taken back." I don't see any other place for them at the moment but prison. Then they might learn Jack Hancock, stabbing victim Despite successful treatment, Jack must have regular hospital check-ups and will be on medication for the rest of his life. His attacker was given a seven-year prison sentence. The trainee accountant said in most cases there seemed to be a softer attitude to knife crime than guns. "What's the difference between a knife and a gun. Guns are seen as much worse but a knife can do exactly the same thing," he said. "I don't agree with this stuff about carrying for protection or because they were part of the wrong crowd. "My friends were stabbed in London. One was killed. I didn't start carrying a knife. Even after I was stabbed it never crossed my mind. "You need a mandatory prison sentence as a deterrent." He agreed with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith that there did need to be new ideas and a fresh approach to the problem of knife crime, but said hospital visits were not the answer. "This idea of a hospital visit is a slap on the wrist not a real punishment. What normal people would be appalled by, [knife-carriers] could just roll their eyes at unimpressed. "They don't follow rules and they don't live their lives within normal boundaries. I don't see any other place for them at the moment but prison. Then they might learn."