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Witnessing a stabbing
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The government has launched a series of hard-hitting adverts, featuring gruesome images of mutilated hands and knives sticking out of victims’ chests.
But even these fail to truly capture the real horror of what knives can do and the trauma it can cause. I know from first hand experience.
On July 23, 2000, I was returning home from a night out with a friend in Brixton in south London.
As were walking down a busy a street, a figure emerged from a side road with his arms in the air, wailing for help. At first we thought he was drunk, but as we got closer we could see he had blood on his hands and was in extreme distress.
“My friend has been stabbed”, he cried out through sobs.
About 20 yards on the side street, we could see his friend — outstretched wearing a T-shirt and shorts lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
I hailed down a passing taxi and told the occupants to call for help while my friend, a doctor, did his best to resuscitate the victim.
But it was far too late. The man died within minutes and I can still remember his last, gurgled breath.
He had received two wounds — one to his knee and the fatal one through his belly, with the layers of subcutaneous fat clearly on display. The knife had passed through his spleen, heart and lungs. He hadn’t stood a chance.
It is hard to describe the horror of the scene. The road underneath the young man’s body was dark and there was blood sprayed all over a nearby wall. His two friends, one of whom had also been stabbed, were drenched in blood and numbed with shock.
They could barely speak when a flustered police officer finally arrived.
And what had led to this? They weren’t members of a gang — in fact they were students from Canada who had come to Britain for their studies.
It transpired that one of the three friends had been mugged earlier in the night, the robbers taking his wallet with 60 pounds. When he went home and told his housemates, they went to try and get his wallet back, and confronted the robbers.
It was a decision that was to prove fatal for one of them.
The killer, another young man, was tracked down soon afterwards and given a life sentence for the murder. That moment of violence had ruined his life as well.
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“Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime” has been the official Labour line for the past 11 years.
The law states that the penalty for “possession of a knife” is 4 years in prison.
The reality is that anyone found to be carrying a knife is given a police caution and the fact is recorded in government statistics as a crime that has been detected and “solved”.
So who’s to blame for knife crime and what action is required to stop it? Anyone with half an ounce of sense knows the answer to both questions.
Why on earth do they not teach teenagers in schools and communities the morality issues surrounding violence?
It isn’t the knife it is the mentality behind it.
Turkey has a similar problem with a culture of the knife.
The real issue is the compulsion to harm – to hurt people.
Tackle this issue and we might see some seachanges in the mentality of the prospective knifer.
Also, if someone stabs a victim, assuming their victim is not killed, then why don’t they get sentenced to 2 or 3 years of legally forced Army conscription?
I think this could train them to become more responsible adults less likely to have such a wanton disrepect for the knives they used and for, most importantly, their victims, and all other members of the community.
I’m simply amazed.
Here in the US, I’ve had a concealed carry permit for the last 10 years… Most times that I’m out and about, I carry a Glock 9mm, and the times I’ve talked to the police, they’ve known I’ve had it and just smiled.
The city I live in (Gainesville) has less than a dozen murders per year, despite between 2 and 5 percent of the population carrying pistols on a daily basis and 50+% having a knife in their pocket.
The issue isn’t “cracking down on inanimate objects” but , as another comment mentioned, the morality of the people who commit the crimes.
Your laws punish the generally law abiding, while doing nothing to protect them.
It is a shame that the “Rights of Englishmen” that were once a shining beacon to the world of what was right and good are now banished from England.
by taking out order that anybody under 16 if found carrying a knife will be sentenced etc, wont help stop knife crime, its the depth that hasto be understood as to why these people commit crimes as such- it can be depression, communication gap and understanding between parents and children and upbringing of the children, no sane kid would go out and stab his opponent or anybody just because of fights or arguments or robbery, but because of the wrong friends, parents not bothered about how their kids feel and treat or respect others etc, by giving freedom to a child who turns 16 and over completely is also one reason that they think ok its mylife and i am the boss and if proper upbringing has not been sowed in those sixteen years then the results are such that we see in them and the adults too. god help us all.
It does not matter how many laws you bring in, people who are intent on committing crime will carry whatever, be it knives or guns, they have no respect for the law,
but may I say when they are caught, it is no good giving a slap on the wrist, they carry these weapons for a reason.If they use them then give them the penalty they deserve,
its no use them saying I did not mean to do it, because if that was the case it would not happen as they would not be carrying offensive weapons