Knife Crime in London- A menace getting out of control? Part 1

London a city of diverse cultures. A city of contrasts, humour, oddness and creativity
cheerfulness and glumness, poverty and wealth, knowledge, youthfulness, oldness noisy, overcrowded, rusting, historic, everlasting grey skies, cold beer, cold and hot coffee, hot tea, toast and melted butter with Marmite. Pimps, gangsters, lawyers, politicians, know-alls, know-nothings, babblers, hagglers, trade, commerce, dust, rain, snow affluence and extravagance.

London has mass number of people moving around a large metropolis to own accords. Each an individual in own right and from very different backgrounds but mainly with common purposes example to work, for tourism, leisure, sports especially cricket and football, to admire and enjoy all that the city offers with its transport systems, buildings, history and high street stores.

But this city is bedevilled with one oddity which has torn families apart, left so many hearts broken, made parents childless, made children orphans, made the streets and pubs insecure, work places filled with consternation as a result of actions of cowards who resort to Knife Crime

Knife Crime –Yes I mean knife crime. Sounds awkward but this is real. Just like we read about gun crime in America and see in the news where many innocent lives have been maimed as a result of cowardly acts of some lunatics, so it is here in London when it comes to knife crime. A growing concern in London and major other cities in the UK which include Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield.

According to nidirect.gov.uk ‘Knife crime’ “is simply any crime that involves a knife. This includes carrying a knife or trying to buy one if you’re under 18, threatening someone with a knife, carrying a knife that is banned, a murder where the victim was stabbed with a knife, a robbery or burglary where the thieves carried a knife as a weapon or even a hate attack where a victim is left with stab injuries which can be life threatening or not life-threatening”.

‘Knife Crime’- these are two words we hear every day in the news on ITV, BBC, and Channel 4 news, see on national dailies such as Daily Mail and Mirror. Our screens covered with the harrowing images of heart broken mums, dads, families who have lost their teenage sons, daughters and even grown up men and women to this menace as a result of the activities of cowards especially gangs members and teenagers who feel carrying knife will make them safer, offer protection and gain them respect amongst peers and friends.

Knife crime is a menace that is ravaging through the streets of London. You never know the next place of occurrence. Stabbings have occurred in pubs, at homes, on the streets, at cash machines where victims are robbed, islamophobic and homophobic attacks where victims were lefts with varying degree of life threatening injuries, in offices especially where support workers have been killed, even in the line of duty where police officers were brutally stabbed while doing their jobs. 

Recently, paramedics in the UK demanded for stab vests and the obvious reason behind this is for them not to fall victims of knife crimes themselves while carrying out their duties
Those who carry knife believe it will offer them protection but the reverse has always been the case. 

Research has shown that “those who carry knife are actually more likely to become a victim of crime and in some cases, teens have been injured or killed by someone else using the knife they were carrying” according to indirect.gov.uk.

This leaves me with one question. Why do people resort to knife crime?

To be continued………..