A fair decision?

A knife throwing act has been scrapped from a summer fair after a woman whose 16-year-old daughter was stabbed to death complained to her local council.
What do you think of the decision?
Is this going a step too far?

links for 2008-07-13

underdogs bite upwards – Another day, another law.
These new laws will be as effective as the rest of labour’s meddling. They will have no effect on knife crime whatsoever. They will lead to more arrests because they pick out another easy group to target. Stabbings, however, will continue unimpeded

Knife crime: I know a proven solution [...]

Disarming Britain – the live debate

Tomorrow at 7pm Jon Snow will front a live debate on the culture of street weapons.
If you’d like to contribute your point of view to the programme, email streetweapons@channel4.com

Having your say

Earlier today, we let you know how to have your say on the Disarming Britain season.
Over on our Facebook group, Louis P. Burns posted his thoughts on the wall:
“Mark Johnson’s point, made in the Guardian, will also be debated. He asked if “a bunch of middle class people” were qualified to talk about and potentially [...]

News in brief…

Since 2002, the number of youngsters hospitalised with knife wounds has almost doubled. Today’s Sun newspaper reveals a shocking 88% increase.

Yet Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told GMTV yesterday: “Knife crime is not more serious than it has been.”

A woman is on the run after slaying a recently-miscarried woman with a knife near the Home [...]

Listening out

A Street Weapons Commissioner, Mark Johnson – himself a reformed drug addict and gang member, spoke recently about his experiences touring with the Street Weapons Commission in a Guardian article – and he’s certainly got a point by saying kids need to be spoken to by people they relate to – not the typical [...]

links for 2008-07-01

On London Youth Crime « Born2rant’s Weblog
When I watched Channel 4 last night , all the programmes about youth and knife crime I broke down and cried. It surprised me to react so strongly but I feel we have failed our children so badly.

Murdered Ben Kinsella’s chilling vision
TRAGIC Ben Kinsella wrote about his own death [...]

Comment of the week…

Here’s a charming little comment submitted recently:
Pretty much it’s only poor people or drug addicts getting shot, which don’t really help the Country, if anything it’s a benifit to the tax payers. I’m not saying gun crime is a good thing, but if poor people want to kill themselves and others…I really couldn’t care less.
Somehow, [...]

The Mother’s Story

The opening programme to the Disarming Britain season tonight was something of an eye-opener.
And not just because Paula, the mother in question, wore her dead son’s eye on a chain round her neck.
Since the fatal double shooting of Paula’s son Eugene aged just 25 she’s done workshops in schools aiming to steer kids away from [...]

links for 2008-06-29

Channel 4 – News – Dispatches – The Truth About Street Weapons
2008 has seen a staggering number of teenage gang and knife attacks on Britain’s streets with a death toll comparable to that of our troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Guns and Knives
This morning four officers from the Armed Response Unit brought the ‘Guns and [...]