CPP
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The New York Times posted an article yesterday entitled, "Rising Knife Violence Alarms Britain as Youths Take Up Blades." Some memorable points:
- “When you’re leaving the house, you don’t even think about it. You grab your keys, wallet, phone and knife,” said Ali, a 19-year-old student who provided only his first name out of fear that he would be approached by the police.
- The trend of young men arming themselves with knives has become an enormous concern for the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s largest police force, which last month reported a 24 percent increase in knife crimes over the last year, bringing knife-related offenses to a five-year high.
- It’s not just an increase in knife crime that has officials worried, but the increase in people carrying the so-called zombie knives and machetes inspired by horror films that can be bought for less than $10 on the internet. While the sale of such weapons was outlawed in Britain last year, a thriving black market exists online.
- “They sneak knives out of the kitchen drawer without being aware of the risks and consequences of their actions.”
- “We know that if you are carrying a knife, there is a big chance of you becoming a perpetrator or a victim of a knife crime,” [Steve O’Connell, the chairman of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee,] added. “We need to persuade youths that they don’t need knives.”
- Chris Wheeler, a boxing instructor from Peckham in southeast London, which has one of the highest rates of knife crime in the city, said that most youths get involved with knives out of boredom.
