Knife Violence in Knife-Banned London Is So Bad, Kids Are Wearing 'Knife-Proof Vests'

P. Gardner Goldsmith | September 28, 2018
DONATE
Font Size

One need not be cynical to sneer at the high profile politicians who control London and tell people that their fanciful statutory “bans” on guns and knives will do anything save put innocent people at increased risk of violent crime.

In fact, a new story by Selwyn Duke, of The New American reveals that loving parents in London are responding to the shocking rise in knife crime, not by applauding the useless and rights-infringing so-called “knife ban” put in place by feckless London Mayor Sadiq Kahn in April, but by…

Buying their kids “knife-proof vests”.

Is this really London? The city that saw “Dead-Ender” kids roaming the streets after Nazi bombing raids searching for useable metal during both phases of the Blitz? The place that saw courageous 1970s teens squatting in vacant buildings in Ladbroke Grove, and forming bands such as Killing Joke, The Clash, and Motorhead? Has this great city really been reduced to such a poor state by its malfunctioning, arrogant, blind bureaucracy that parents can’t let their kids outside unless they wrap them in the contemporary equivalent of medieval armor?

In fact, it is, and the knife crime situation is so bad there, parents aren’t just going for vests, a new company is selling knife-proof hoodies. Writes Duke:

The Mirror reported in August that a firm named, amusingly, Bladerunner, was selling stab-proof hoodies and gloves… The Mirror further informs that, ‘Bladerunner managing director Lee Marks claims they have seen a 22 percent spike in demand for the pricey stab-proof hoodies and specialist Kevlar-lined gloves to disarm knifemen over the summer.’

And how bad is knife crime? Well, in order to comprehend this, one needs to understand the difference between “knife crime”, which would include any “knife violation” for which police enforce the law and make an arrest, and person-on-person crime committed with a knife.

As Danny Shaw wrote for the BBC, across all of England and Wales:

There were 37,443 offences in the 12 months ending in September 2017, a 21% increase on the previous year and the highest number since 2011, the earliest point for which comparable data is available.

And London was responsible for the highest proportion of knife crimes through June of 2016.

For every 100,000 people in the capital, there were 114 knife offences in 2016, with separate figures, from the mayor's office, showing that young black and minority ethnic teenage boys and men were disproportionately affected, as both victims and perpetrators.

But, again, those are “offenses”, not necessarily person-on-person crimes. And those offenses have increased for guns as well… So, the bans aren’t having the desired effect of wiping away the weapons. In late August, Matthew Weaver wrote for The Guardian:

Police recorded 39,598 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year to December 2017, a 22% increase compared with the previous year (32,468), and the highest number registered since comparable records started in 2010. Gun crime rose to 6,604 offences.

And violent crime, for both guns and knives, has increased.

The figures on the high-harm violent crimes, such as knife and gun attacks, are more reliable. But the ONS pointed out that they are disproportionately concentrated in London and other metropolitan areas… A third of knife and gun crime was recorded in London. Separate figures released by the Metropolitan police for the year ending April 2018 showed 157 homicides, an increase of 44%.

Knife attacks have spiked -- pun recognized, but not intended, since this is so serious.

Sofia Petkar and Jon Rogers shed light on the horror of knife attacks (among others, like guns, and acid, and automotive vehicles) rising over the past year for The Sun:

Figures from London's Metropolitan police showed that knife crime has surged by 16 per cent in the capital — as Britain's crime epidemic continues… There were 1,299 stabbings in London up to the end of April, according to official statistics from the Met Police.

Does anyone wonder why parents are buying armor for their kids? The taxes they’re forced to pay to Kahn and his pals are spent on things like policing posters that feature fit women in bikinis, and locking up Tommy Robinson for merely standing in front of a court and reporting already available information about already-decided cases live online.

Wake up, London politicians. Your insane decisions aren’t helping to keep people safe. At all. They are, as one might expect, having to handle it themselves.

donate