Harrowing statistics released yesterday have shown that the number of knife crime offenses committed in England and Wales have hit its highest level in a decade. The figures published by the Ministry of Justice have highlighted the scale of the epidemic blighting the streets of England and Wales. In total, 26,364 offences were recorded in the year to September 2019, 3 percent up on the previous year, and the highest number since 2009. The government document response to the document cited a rise that was driven by an increase of people being in possession of “an article with a blade or point offences.”
These horrendous figures have prompted a number of government initiatives and ideas from ministers on how to combat the plague of knife crime offenses to be ridiculed on social media. In March 2019 the then Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson insisted that the UK armed forces were “ready to respond” and assist the then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid to “tackle this problem [knife crime].” This intervention brought out a feeling of bemusement on social media with many questioning how military personnel could ever provide the necessary support to a highly complex societal as well as a crime issue. It also appears that while the scale of the problem has dropped across most of England and Wales it is the rise in London that has skewed figures.
This ‘intervention’ was followed in August 2019 by a government attempt to curb knife crime by putting anti-stabbing messages on takeaway boxes of fried chicken in several restaurant chains in England and Wales. In addition to some critics calling the initiative as racist, due to the stereotype of linking black people and fried chicken, others observed with amazement at the scale of incompetence of our elected individuals to deal with the gravest societal problem in Britain currently. UNN’s Oliver Down gives two solutions to this problem and would welcome any government officials to get in contact. The first to tackle the immediate problem is to considerably beef up punishments simply for carrying a weapon. The second, a long-term solution, would be to get obligatory sessions on the school curriculum to deal with the problem at source. Alternatively, we could just put messages on chicken boxes!
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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