Knife crimes on the rise in the UK

Hardly surprising. London has always been a centre of attraction for youth and gang related knife crimes. According to a BBC source, tougher laws will be implemented in 2009. This will see that criminals will get tougher jail sentences. Judges will have more power to decide on punishments. Asides jail sentences, stricter community service will be introduced with a heavy sanction on curfews and personal liberties. Personally, I am not in favour of community service. For me, it means a cop out from actual jail sentence. A criminal won't learn much about the seriousness of his crime from doing community service. That is like saying to a child, you're grounded but you can still go out and be back before a time deadline.


I am not a fan of Tory party. Never liked them. However I appreciate their efforts in raising awareness about knife related crimes and how it is on a rise. I appreciate the fact they seem concerned about this. I like and support their proposal of introducing automatic presumption of jail for knife possession. It is harsh, but it is necessary. I rather see someone go to jail than to see someone getting killed. Harsh and selfish, but for me, saving a life is more important.

In 2007 and 2008, a lot of teenagers in London have died from knife related crimes. I used to read about them in the newspapers all the time. I rather we adopt the 'its better to be safe than sorry' approach. I also support the stop and search tactics. I think it is very necessary. Youth and suspicious looking folks need to be stopped and searched on the spot, where ever they are. Police should be tough and be given full support by the government and all political parties.

The UK government is already doing what they can but I feel that increasing the age limit to 18 to buy a knife, doubling the jail term isn't enough. We need to do more. We cannot rest until our streets are safe from such crimes.