Knife criimes

[AliasAggers]

It is surprising now-a-days how often one hears about young people being involved in knife crimes.

In my opinion, I think that parents should be doing more to see that their offspring are not carrying knives.

I'm quite sure that, when I was a young person, my parents would have known if I was carrying such terible weapons.
Perhaps most parents today are too busy playing with their electronic gadgets to take much interest in what their offsprings are doing?

Maybe the laws should be changed to make parents responsible for their childrens behavior?

What do you think?

[cromwell]

Why do they want to do it? What makes a young person want to stick a knife into someone?
If and when we understand that we may have a chance of stopping this.
Until that day comes heavier punishment for perpetrators is the only thing I can think of.

[AliasAggers]

heavier punishment for perpetrators is the only thing I can think of.

I think we need heavier punishments for all crimes. Then we might have less reoffending.

[Workingman]

In my opinion, I think that parents should be doing more to see that their offspring are not carrying knives.

This is what I was getting at with my online grooming thread.

Modern parents are absolved of any responsibility for the actions of their children, or so it would appear. Was this always the case? Something tells me "no it was not".

I also do not understand why anyone would carry a knife, never mind wanting to stick it in someone.

[meriad]

Modern parents are absolved of any responsibility for the actions of their children, or so it would appear. Was this always the case? Something tells me "no it was not".

I'm probably going to get slated for saying this but I think that one of the big differences between then and now is that back then our parents were allowed to be parents and discipline us without fear of reprisal. And no, I'm not talking child abuse and beatings but a good smack every now and then never did me nor my siblings any harm. Whereas these days; if you as a parent had to smack your child or even threaten to do so you'd be hauled in front of social services and have the book thrown at you. And kids these days know it - they get away with it because the law cannot touch them. I remember a few years back a bunch of kids running over cars that were parked along the road. The owners came out and the kids just pulled finger at them and laughed and said 'you can't touch us'... obviously by the time the police came the kids were long gone, leaving who know how much damage to the cars.

[TheOstrich]

I think that's quite right, Meriad - different world nowadays with too much emphasis on rights and not enough on responsibilities.

How you combat this knife crime epidemic, I've no idea. Stop and search, and pop-up knife metal detectors, are all very well but what happens to any knife carriers found? Supposedly a maximum sentence of 4 years plus a fine, but do any actually finish up in the courts? Probably not.

And let's stop blaming schools who exclude pupils, the latest fad. The schools are not the fault, the knife-carrying pupils are. I'd rather see a disruptive or violent pupil excluded than a whole year class at that school suffer.

[cromwell]

I suppose the question is, what would deter knife crime?
And here I'm afraid, Police Chiefs are being tremendously dishonest. 200 more PCs won't make any difference if they are all assigned to Twitter crime. But more crucially 200 more PCs won't make a difference anyway, because of how the Police are organized and led.
The public are expecting more police on the street but they will be disappointed. The police don't work like that anymore.
Police patrol is now called "response" and there's a good reason for it. They are directed to crime when it is reported, eg after it has happened. This is how street policing has been organized for decades now. Patrolling to prevent crime doesn't exist, hasn't done for years.
So no matter how many more officers forces get, they won't be out there patrolling, they won't be out there deterring any sort of crime.

[Workingman]

More than a handful of nails hit firmly on their heads in the above posts.

Not to worry, though, some bloke called Hogan-Howe has an idea. All we need to do is create a 'Knife' Tsar, or is it Czar, and all will be well.

This is the same bod who, as Commissioner of the Met, circulated the statement: “I have confidence in the leadership provided by the senior leaders in the Met”

Only 1 in 5 gave the 'correct' answer, whilst 3 in 5 gave the 'wrong' answer. Not surprisingly there was no follow-up to discover why ordinary officers thought their seniors were numpties.

To ask probably seemed like a good idea at the time, and as we now know Hogan-Howe is an 'ideas' man par excellence. Unfortunately he does not come close to being a 'solutions' man so they gave him a Knighthood.

[victor]

I don't know about the places where most of you live but here we see police every day on the streets either walking or on bicycles

[TheOstrich]

I've think I've seen a copper on the beat here in Gillingham only once since we moved down here, Vic.

The local police station is open just two mornings a week, as is Blandford (two different weekdays); Shaftesbury and Stur are not open to the public.

I think I'm correct in saying there are around a dozen "community" police officers and PCSOs covering the whole of North Dorset including these 4 towns; that's 268 square miles according to their website. Their mugshots are on the police website so you can recognise them if you see them …..

For example:
https://www.dorset.police.uk/neighbourh ... set-rural/