UK : Knife attacks surge 73% as amnesty fails

THE number of crimes involving knives on the streets of England and Wales has risen dramatically in the past year, with huge increases in their use during robberies, mugging and violent attacks on strangers. Attacks in which a knife was used during a mugging rose by 73 per cent while there was a 55 per cent increase in random attacks with knives on strangers.

A report accompanying the figures from the British Crime Survey accuses John Reid, the Home Secretary, of presiding over an incoherent strategy to tackle the problem and of resorting to knee-jerk legislative responses.

“Government and the police lack a coherent, evidence-based, reasoned strategy for dealing with knife carrying and knife-related offences,” the report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College London said.

“There is insufficient evidence that a knife amnesty or increasing sentence length for carrying knives will decrease the level of knife use and carrying.”

The surge in knife crime on the streets comes after a decade of decline. Ministers will hope that the increases disclosed in the report are a blip rather than a reversal of what had been a downward trend since 1995.

The report also cites evidence that one third of schoolchildren claimed to have carried a knife in the past year, with the figure increasing to 57 per cent of children who have been excluded from school.

“What evidence exists indicates that a significant minority of schoolchildren and young people carry knives and this problem may be growing,” the report says. “As long as there is unsliced bread, opportunities for knife crime will exist.”

The number of robberies carried out using a knife rose by 15,000 to 40,400 in 2005-06; muggings involving a knife increased by 17,730 to 42,000 and violent attacks using a knife on a stranger rose 18,300 to 51,700.

Chris Eades, author of the report, was critical of the strategy adopted by the Government and police. “Relying on an implausible view that increased sentence length will have a deterrent effect, it seems unlikely that the Government’s chosen policy will have an impact on knife carrying in public.”

Instead, the researchers urged the Government to tackle the root causes of the problem: “Since it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to limit the availability of knives, and knives are merely a tool used in violent crime, success in fighting knife usage will only come with success in dealing with the underlying causes of violence, fear and insecurity.”

The report questioned whether the recent amnesty in which 89,864 knives were handed in would result in a reduction in knife carrying and knife-related offences.

Ministers are planning to increase the maximum penalty for carrying a knife without good reason to four years, but the report also questioned whether this would reduce knife carrying. The proposal smacked of a knee-jerk legislative response that did not appear to be based on available evidence or research, it said.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the figures from the British Crime Survey, which interviews 40,000 over-16s about their experiences of crime, was a shocking indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle violent crime on the streets. “The public are having to pay a desperately high price,” he said. “Soaring violent crime is a scourge on society. It com-pletely undermines Labour’s claims to be tough on crime.”

Lin Costello, co-founder of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression and a member of the Home Office knife and gun crime panel, said: “Young people are more and more willing to pick up a weapon. A knife is the easiest to get as they are in the drawer at home. We need to address not just the fact that there is more knife crime but more violent crime.”

1984- George Orwell

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.

Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

“There is insufficient evidence that a knife amnesty or increasing sentence length for carrying knives will decrease the level of knife use and carrying.”

I wonder if Mr. Eades would have a problem in drawing parallels between knives and firearms with these statements.

1. Crimestop
"The faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. In short....protective stupidity."

2. Crimethink
To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc. Doubting any of the principles of Ingsoc. All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. "Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death, Thoughtcrime is death.... The essential crime that contains all others in itself."

3. Facecrime
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called."

4. Free
Only exist in the sense of "The dog is free of lice". The concept of political freedom has been replaced by the word crimethink.

5. Inner Party
Official Party members. Upper class. About 6 million individuals (or 2%) of the population in Oceania fall into this class. They posses most of the comforts of today's middle class (with the addition of two or three servants and possibly a helicopter).

6. Malreported
When the Times reports a fact which the government later deemed untrue. You see, the government is never "wrong", the paper merely reported the facts incorrectly. This term was often used in describing newspaper articles that contained references to unpersons, unfulfilled economic projections, or altered government policies.

7. Outer Party
Middle class. Bureaucrats, and other government employees. Comprising approximately 13% of population. There is a huge gap between the standard of living of Inner and Outer party members. Outer Party members have very little possessions, and almost no access to basic consumer goods. All outer party members have a telescreen in every room of their pathetic excuse for an apartment.

8. Prole
Proletarians. Approximately 85% of Oceania's population are in this class. Members of the party viewed them as animals. They are not as rigidly observed as members of the party, and very few (if any) have telescreens in their home. They are permitted to indulge in pornography, prostitution, and other acts considered thoughtcrime, simply because it would be impossible to observe all of them as rigidly as the party observes its own members. Plus, allowing them to indulge in these "little joys" helps to keep the masses content.

9. Thinkpol
ThoughtPolice. Police force in charge of eliminating crimethink. The thought police monitor the public by way of spies (narcs), helicopters, and telescreens.

And this one just made me laugh right out loud:

"Mothers Against Murder and Aggression"

Sounds like a worthwhile organization. I mean just think of all the people out there campaigning in favor of murder and aggression. I remember my own mother saying, "It's a beautiful evening. Why don't you go out and kill some nice young girl?", and now when I think about it that was just wrong. If there had been an organization like "Mothers Against Murder and Aggression", they might have shown me other methods of conflict resolution and educated me about racism, sexism and homophobia.

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