The Home Office has just released the latest Knife Crime statistics for 2018. This comes in the 7th consecutive day in which a teenager was stabbed in west Kensington.
The stats are for 2015/2016 vs 2017/2018 (the last 4 quarters)
Met (London): +52%
Derbyshire: +63%
Cheshire: +63%
Devon/Cornwall: +63%
Merseyside: +65%
Thames Valley: +75%
Manchester: +75%
Leicestershire: +102%
Northumbria: -25%
The West Midlands where extra stop and search powers have been implemented for a time-limited trial has also seen the biggest increase in knife crime outside of London.
Stop and Search stats per year:
2009/2010: 1,400,000
2011/2012: 1,200,000
2012/2014: 900,000
2015/2016: 400,000
2017/2018: 300,000
In 2018 to September, 21,381 adults were convicted of carry a blade or offensive weapon. This includes cautions, warnings and convictions. In the same period 4,459 of those were said to be under the age of 18 when the indecent took place.
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I suggest the government tackle this immediately with a bold plan to ban anything that is pointy and could be used to stab people (especially those from a certain community who's mothers would go to the wall for them).
Sticks are especially problematic so we need to get rid of all trees and bushes. And pencils. Pens too.
Statistics will show this to be as effective as the other bans on weapons where law abiding citizens are denied access but it does bugger all to stop those who commit crime (and by definition are not bothered by breaking the law).
Then stones, bricks and other blunt instruments.
Rare (thankfully) events will always be subject to random clustering - can someone please teach our politicos about 'reversion to the mean'*? And that's the case even if they're statistically independent, whereas there are obvious 'fashions' with these types of attack - only a couple of years ago, it was bleach- or acid-filled water pistols that were the threat to society - whatever happened to them?
* Actually, many are probably well aware, but it can be used by the unscrupulous to show how 'effective' they are - see road safety campaigns for innumerable examples
...only a couple of years ago, it was bleach- or acid-filled water pistols that were the threat to society - whatever happened to them?
Well, have you tried to purchase strong drain-clearing fluid recently? I have, and was told that my stockist was only permitted to sell the product to bona fide tradespeople who could show a legitimate need for the item. We plebs are restricted to a product with about as much caustic function as a bottle of Diet Coke....