knifes kill get real laws to deal with knife crime

THE INDEPENDENT VICTIMS HELPLINE (UK)

throw away your knifes not your lives

Scanning Britons for knife crime
By Susannah Cullinane
BBC News


Most people at the trial noticed cameras, not the metal detector
The proliferation of knives across the UK has police worried, with Scotland Yard warning it is one of the most serious problems officers face. Can metal detectors beat the problem?
He walks towards the silver poles, spots the police presence and makes a sharp U-turn. Officers, noticing his sudden change of heart, search him and find a knife.
The arrest that followed was one of the first made as trials of a metal detector at one of the UK's busiest bus stations begins.
With teachers calling for random weapons checks in schools and headlines warning of dangerous numbers of people - particularly the young - carrying knives, it is the latest initiative aimed at beating the problem.
The size of the task ahead was underlined on Thursday, when Metropolitan Police commissioner John Stevens said: "Gun crime has been reduced and people have moved over to knives.
"If people are carrying a knife for the wrong reasons then I think they should receive a mandatory sentence of two or even three years."
Operation Blunt
The metal detector trial is at Hammersmith in west London, which deals with tens of thousands of passengers each day.
It was chosen because it is used by people from all over London and is frequently attended by police called to deal with disorder incidents.


If it will protect one child I'm all for it

Martha Brett
If the trial is judged a success, the equipment could potentially be deployed in the rest of England and Wales.
Commander Simon Foy, head of the Scotland Yard anti-knife crime initiative Operation Blunt, said the extent of the problem was difficult to define.
"We're more conscious of them if there's a stabbing or knifepoint robbery, but there's a grey area for burglaries through to assaults where a knife was used to intimidate.
"A considerable amount of violent crime is knife-related."
Fine or caution
Under current laws, possessing a firearm carries a mandatory five-year prison sentence, but offenders could be jailed for up to 10 years.
In contrast, anyone caught carrying a knife without good reason faces a maximum sentence of four years.
If the blade is less than three inches long the punishment could be as little as a £50 fine or a caution.
Police are concerned about the number of people now arming themselves with knives.
They say that young people aged 12 to 20 are more likely to be both offenders and victims in knife crime cases.
Schools crackdown
Last month Education Secretary Charles Clarke said schools could be given powers to search pupils for weapons, under plans to tackle bad behaviour.

The police presence will put people off, but once they have gone away it will come back

Hammersmith commuter
After Luke Walmsley, 14, was murdered by a fellow pupil at a Lincolnshire school last year, Scotland Yard said hi-tech scanners would be offered to schools to help guard against knives.
An X-ray machine which can show weapons hidden under clothes is another of the tactics being used by police and officers have also been using hand-held metal detectors on suspects.
In Hammersmith, the installation of a metal detector seemed to appeal to many passengers.
Martha Brett, 55, from London, said they were a "fantastic" idea and that they should be at all stations, and possibly on public transport.
"Mostly for children - they seem to be carrying the knives, if it will protect one child I'm all for it."
She pointed out that a small, "but very sharp" Swiss Army knife on her keying had not set off the detector, but suggested it probably wasn't "prestigious" enough for children.
'High reading'
The metal detector is in fact set to a very high reading based on metal density, so it does not bleep at more innocent objects.
But police believe word has spread about the trial and fewer potential offenders were coming into the area where the detector was based.
"Some people being put off will be knife carrying," said Commander Foy, "there's the whole deterrent effect of this."

Commander Foy pointed to the deterrent effect of the trial
In terms of judging whether the trial was a success, Commander Foy points to the man who had been caught avoiding the detector.
He added: "The thing that will interest me most is what the officers say. Does this help officers do their job?"
Others are less convinced that the initiative will make a difference.
Another commuter was keen to keep the detector and officers battling crime in Hammersmith.
He said: "The police presence will put people off, but once they have gone away it will come back."

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COMMUNITY HELPLINE
Is knife crime really getting worse?
By Megan Lane & Brian Wheeler
BBC News Online Magazine



Concern about violent crime in Britain has swung back to knives and their availability to children. But has so-called "knife culture" risen while the media's attention has been so fixed on gun crime?
It's a shopping list likely to send a chill down the spine: kitchen knives, axes, razor sharp "cat skinners" and Ninja-style throwing knives.
Yet these and other potentially lethal weapons can be easily bought by children, according to a new national survey.
Almost half of shops tested broke the law by selling knives to children under 16, according to the Trading Standards Institute. And internet traders are even more of a push over because of the anonymity involved in buying something online.

Michael Howard, launching an anti-knife campaign in 1996
Sceptics, however, might comment that it has always been thus. There's nothing new about youngsters seeking to boost their street cred by carrying a blade.
It used to be the lore of the playground that flick knives - illegal in the UK - could be effortlessly picked up across the Channel (and so retained a status as the ultimate souvenir from a French exchange trip).
So are we really witnessing a rise in so-called "knife culture" or is the recent coverage afforded to the issue in newspapers just a spot of media hysteria?
Evidence shows knife seizures are on the increase. The number of people convicted of carrying a blade in public rose from 2,559 in 1995 to 3,570 in 2000, according to the Home Office.
Reports from hospital A&E departments indicate a rise in stab wounds, particularly among young men aged between 14 and 25.
Daily routine
One expert with street-level experience is convinced more young people are arming themselves with knives these days.

Everybody goes to the market and buys kitchen knives - they say they want to use them in the kitchen, but they don't

Youth club member, John
"We are seeing more and more stab wounds - even five years ago, these were pretty rare. Young males in particular are carrying knives on a daily basis, and if they carry them, they use them," says John Heyworth, of the British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine.
Those young men are often of school age, according to a survey by the Youth Justice Board this year. It found that of the crimes committed by young people, carrying a knife was the most common offence among children excluded from school (62%).
Undoubtedly, the problem is a predominantly urban one. Julie Jacobs, of the Streatham Youth Centre in south London, says some young people begin to carry knives from about the age of 11, when they first begin to venture out of their home patch.

A 'cyclone knife', bought online
"There is a sense that they need some sort of protection. It is a turf thing, a territory thing, but I don't think it is getting any worse."
So have youngsters themselves seen a rise in knife brandishing?
John, a 17-year-old at the Charter House Youth Club, in Southwark, London, believes the problem is "getting worse" although he does not know anyone who carries a knife.
He was once been threatened by three boys with kitchen knives, while on a bus.
"They were trying to jack me. They wanted my mobile phone and my money. There is nothing that can be done about people getting hold of knives. Everybody goes to the market and buys kitchen knives. They say they want to use them in the kitchen, but they don't."
Suspended from school
One 14-year-old from Peckham thinks there's a lot of bluster from kids trying to appear harder than they are.

Hidden in a comb - concealed blades are easily available
"I know people who brag about carrying knives. They say they have a great big butcher's knife. People say silly things."
He says a boy at his school was suspended after a knife was found in his bag. But generally, he says, the situation is getting better at his school.
"Maybe one day out of seven someone will say 'give me you money' or something, but I never have been threatened with a knife."
Of those that do brandish a blade, many justify it as in the interests of "self defence", says Unun Seshmi, who runs a charity called Boyhood to Manhood which is dedicated to steering young black people away from crime.
"They are walking around in fear of being stabbed. They feel there is nobody there to protect them. They don't want to go to the police. But they don't want to use the knife either."
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Some of your comments on this story:
I carried knives while at school in the late 70s/early 80's. There was a need for protection in a school known for its violence. I still carry one today, every time I leave the house. I don't do this to intimidate people, and I've never used it - in fact I do my best to steer around trouble situations - but if caught in a dangerous situation I need to be able to protect myself, and I believe I have the right to.
Anon, Uk
In the late 1950s Mr Barnet-Janner, MP for Leicester, introduced a law against carrying offensive weapons during the Teddy Boy era. (Razors and knives were carried and used at that time by delinquents). The law was passed and rigorously enforced by the police. It was successful! So what happened?
Christopher J Wright, Spain
We still circle the problem - the penalties for carrying a knife should be severe as the only reason for doing so, whether or not in self-defence, is the intention of causing harm.
Phil K, UK
I think it would be a shame to see politically correct hysteria over knives. My father, a respectable and now retired gentleman, has carried a small pocket kife for many, many years, but as the blade is fraction over two inches long I believe he is guilty of carrying an offensive weapon.
Robert Jones, England