TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Political Discussion / Debate
-- London's season of the knife
London's season of the knife
Never thought London can be such a dangerous place. George, give us some insight into the situation.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv.../International/
quote:
London bleeds for victims in season of the knife
DOUG SAUNDERS
Frm Tuesday's Globe and Mail
E-mail Doug Saunders | Read Bio | Latest Columns
July 8, 2008 at 12:00 AM EDT
LONDON � Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez died in pain and confusion. Somebody broke into the south London apartment of the two 23-year-old French university students, tied them up and stabbed them 240 times, apparently torturing them for their bank card passwords, before setting their dying bodies alight.
Shakilus Townsend died in terror. The 16-year-old boy was chased through the streets of London by half a dozen hooded men and one woman who cornered him behind a building and stabbed him four times in the chest.
Bleeding to death, he cried out repeatedly for his mother.
In London, this has become the season of the knife, and the stories of Laurent, Gabriel, Shakilus and at least 16 more victims have blotted out all other topics, leaving the city bewildered by weekly reports of stabbings, each more horrific than the last. Street corners across London are garlanded with memorials to the victims.
Yesterday saw a burned man turn himself in to the police in an apparent confession to the murder of the French students. A badly bleeding man was found dying of stab wounds on a south London street. And David Idowu, a 14-year-old schoolboy who was stabbed in the stomach and chest after being chased across a soccer field three weeks ago, died in hospital, making him the 19th knife victim in the city this year.
So serious is the epidemic that the Metropolitan Police, Britain's major police force, told officers this week that their top priority had shifted from Islamic terrorism to knife crimes.
The spate of stabbings exploded into the centre of politics yesterday as the leaders of Britain's three major parties leaped to demand solutions: longer sentences, larger police forces, a push for more active parenting.
Hooded men with knives have been part of London's street culture for centuries, but rarely in recent history have the victims been so young, the motives so pointless or the killings seemingly so frequent.
In some respects, Britain's knife terror is a fear without an underlying story: The number of knife crimes in Britain has not actually increased, even if this year's London stabbings are included, and violent crime across the country and in London is at its lowest level in two decades; in fact, violent crime rates dropped by another 9 per cent last year. On the whole, the country remains far safer than North America.
But the particularly tragic and apparently innocent nature of London's latest victims has added to a sense that the knife has become a staple of teenage life.
School and police officials agree that the carrying of knives has become epidemic, not just in deprived neighbourhoods but also in better-off communities. The London killings have occurred in a wide range of communities, though relatively poor areas dominate. According to the Home Office, the number of children under 16 seeking treatment for stab wounds rose 88 per cent over the five years leading up to 2007, and among 16- to 18-year-olds, the increase was 75 per cent.
But while politicians rushed to the TV cameras yesterday to urge tougher approaches to the knife problem, there was little sense of a feasible solution, since Britain already has one of the toughest police and penal systems in the Western world on violent-crime issues. Police earlier this year were authorized to stop young people without cause and search them for weapons, and such searches have become commonplace in London.
David Cameron, Leader of the opposition Conservative Party, yesterday accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown of being insufficiently tough on crime, and on the poverty that he said is the root cause.
But Mr. Brown's Labour Party has imprisoned young offenders to a degree not seen in any other European country, increasing the length and number of prison sentences since it came to office in 1997 to the point that Britain's 80,000 prison spaces are full to overcrowding.
�We have doubled the maximum sentence for carrying a knife, and anyone over 16 caught with a knife should be prosecuted,� Policing Minister Tony McNulty said yesterday.
�When they get to court, they are now almost three times as likely to go to prison as 10 years ago. The Tories have consistently voted soft on law and order.�
| quote: |
| �We have doubled the maximum sentence for carrying a knife, and anyone over 16 caught with a knife should be prosecuted,� Policing Minister Tony McNulty said yesterday. |
Re: London's season of the knife
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Magnetonium Never thought London can be such a dangerous place. George, give us some insight into the situation. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv.../International/ |
Re: Re: London's season of the knife
| quote: |
| Originally posted by George Smiley I don't live in London! Like the article said, knife crime just seems to be popular in the news right now, the crime levels aren't increasing or anything. I think it's a very similar phenomenon to shootings between gangs in the less privileged areas of American cities. I don't think changing the law to make it 'tougher' will help as we already lock up more kids than any country in the EU and we still have the problems If they want to sort it out then they have to look at why people join gangs and take it from there... |
Re: Re: Re: London's season of the knife
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Magnetonium Good to know then ;-) its just the sensationalist British tabloid media, I suppose. I almost forgot. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by robstar lol laws... The gun ban is working [ ] |
... and London is a very gigantic city, too. Small statistics for a such a megacity.
Gun killings are more compassionate than knife killings. Less pain for the victims. You Europeans should repeal those gun laws asap.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Capitalizt Gun killings are more compassionate than knife killings. Less pain for the victims. You Europeans should repeal those gun laws asap. |
I was joking about the compassionate part, but serious about the gun law part 
Seriously, these psychos with knives would be much less likely to attack random people if those random people were potentially strapped.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Capitalizt these psychos with knives would be much less likely to attack random people if those random people were potentially strapped. |
This reeks of fear mongering. Violence sells, if its not guns its something else. We're supposed to believe that a wave of knife attacks have swept London and put the city on alert? Lame
| quote: |
| Originally posted by josh4 This reeks of fear mongering. Violence sells, if its not guns its something else. We're supposed to believe that a wave of knife attacks have swept London and put the city on alert? Lame |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Capitalizt I was joking about the compassionate part, but serious about the gun law part Seriously, these psychos with knives would be much less likely to attack random people if those random people were potentially strapped. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov I think you're missing the actual point - these psychos with knives would be much MORE likely to attack if they had guns they could use from a distance. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by George Smiley The figures are still high though (maybe not compared to somewhere like LA or New York?) even if the rate hasn't increased (as we are led to believe from recent press articles). It's still an issue that needs lookin at by the police/government, especially as apparently innocent people seem to be gettin targeted as well as gang members (perhaps that's why we're hearing more about it now than previously?) |
| quote: |
| In some respects, Britain's knife terror is a fear without an underlying story: The number of knife crimes in Britain has not actually increased, even if this year's London stabbings are included, and violent crime across the country and in London is at its lowest level in two decades; in fact, violent crime rates dropped by another 9 per cent last year. On the whole, the country remains far safer than North America. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by josh4 It can be something worth noting and looking into but not something to stay at home about. Even the article admits its hardly a big story and London remains a very safe place. brilliant for them to do a story on something they admit is not a story! in other words, its just meant to scare people |
Oh come on, it's Knife Season!
Everyone loves Knife Season, it's like duck season without feathers and traditional Cockney greetings of "Day's dawnin', a're ya? *STAB!* might fade out of the culture.
Which would be very sad indeed! 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lilith Oh come on, it's Knife Season! Everyone loves Knife Season, it's like duck season without feathers and traditional Cockney greetings of "Day's dawnin', a're ya? *STAB!* might fade out of the culture. Which would be very sad indeed! |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Fir3start3r Sorry, first thing that popped in my head... |
A beautiful blonde woman is in a bar , when a very good looking , hunky black man gives her the eye , he approaches and asks her if she would like a drink , she agrees and after hitting it off she whispers to him , take me home and show me if what they say about black men is true!
They go back home and he robs her purse and stabbs her 4 times
oh
oh
racialist jokes ,,, Contraversy
But on a serious note , in london its mainly black people knifing each other and every white male killed gets a lot more exposure than any black male in the press , and were being asked to back a campaign because one lads sister is on TV
no joke
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.