Stabbings

I have gotten a bit lax about reviewing and previewing, but my excuse is that I am busy playing on my Xbox and working. So I thought that I would focus on something different. Splurge about something that has been on my mind. And that is the menace of stabbings.

It's been absolutely awful. So many different incidents and so many different opinions about why knife crime is on the rise. One thing that I can't get into my head is how young some of these killers are. They seem to span the whole age spectrum. From younger than me, to my age range and beyond.

I remember how back in either 1996 or 1997, I was walking my girlfriend back to Queens Park tube station and a group of guys were standing around and gave me grief about going out with a white girl after I had dropped her off. A few words were said, but nothing happened. A few weeks later, a schoolboy (I am so sorry I don't remember your name, but I still remember your face), got into an argument outside of the Mozart Estate (a notoriously violent estate around Queens Park) and got stabbed in the chest. The first person I had vague contact with that got stabbed. We went to the same school. I remember the school assembly where he was eulogised. I remember the empty chair that was his that nobody wanted to sit in in his english class. And I remember the shock of seeing the face of the person convicted of his murder in the Daily Mail seven months later. He also went to my school and he was the person giving me grief about my girlfriend some months earlier.

My dad used to teach him!

I don't really want to list all the different deaths that I have read about and that I have experienced, but I'd really like to understand when the status quo changed that people feel that it is okay to carry a knife. When did it become so dangerous that it is okay to carry a knife for protection? Did I grow up in a bubble? It has gotten to the point that I feel a little strong apprehension every time I see someone lighting a cigarette on the bus. Because if a person complains about it and an argument starts, these days sadly, a stabbing is not far behind.

Now that this issue seems to have grabbed the attention of the media, every person of influence wants to make our streets safer. We have had talks in parks, adverts in newspapers, knife amnesties, cries of stronger deterrents for people carrying knives. The list goes on. But it does not take a genius to work out that a fresh approach is needed. Perhaps I am being too pessimistic, but you can talk about why it is bad to carry knives from now until Doomsday, but in my personal opinion, it will not make an iota of difference.

But without trying to understand the reasons for why people carry knives, and in understanding these reasons and trying to solve them, it will simply never stop. I mean, how do you get an 11-year-old that he does not need to carry a knife to school/to the playground/to the shop/not to lose his bike? How do you convince an 18-year-old that losing face does not mean that you have to stab the person that dissed you? How do you convince a 24-year-old that mugging is not a decent career choice, let alone armed with a knife? I certainly don't know the answer. But I wish that somebody hurried up and worked it out.

(And I didn't want to do it, but the following is a group of people that had lost their life and were reported in the news in the past few months).
Daniel Pollen, age 20
Marlvin Jiro, age 26
Sayed Abbas, age 18
Barry Wilson, age 29
Nisha Patel-Nisra, age 29
Tom Grant, age 19
Kiyan Prince, age 15
Joe Geeling, age 11
Carrie Burns, age 21
Christopher Alaneme, age 18
Cheryl Moss, age 33

Rest in peace

EffEmmGee wrote:

Things like this need more attention everywhere for more than one reason:

To make people aware that this is a serious issue that needs to be addressed

And no make sure that the people who were wrongfully killed are remembered and not forgotten.

Posting those images I think was a good idea, putting a face to the name (to me anyway) is more respectfull and makes people remember them.

Yes but even if people get locked up for stabbing people they only get upto 15 years anyway its pointless and most of them say there not bothered now because they get loads of great stuff in the prisons.

I hear what you are saying. The punishment is not enough of a deterrent for the crime. But what can you do? Studies have shown that even capital punishment, things like hanging and such, don't really have a major impact on serious crimes like murder and the like.

I wish I knew the answer.