Dealing with knife crime.....

[Damien Alexander]

Okeedokee.....

I have a major issue with this arrogant,self-imposed ignorant government that is the almighty British Parliament.
Nothing they try is working to "prevent" knife attacks.
They refuse to believe that allowing the public to "level the playing field" is any good. They are stuck on the belief that allowing such things would just escalate the problem.
To what and how?!
And before some of you keyboard jockies speak...
I did NOT say carrying a knife for defense either!
What is wrong with pepper spray? Stun guns? ASP batons?
Why it is assumed that the public is too stupid to be educated?
This whole knife amnesty is crap,but they legal system is using the media as a propaganda tactic to try and scare people out of carrying knives.
No one should have to be punished for carrying a reasonable sized pocket knive.One WITH a lock(that is a major no-no here to have a locking folder of any size). Locks are for SAFETY,not killing.
What happened to getting punished for WHAT you do,not what you MIGHT do?
Here,they say thats too late.It's After the fact.
Isn't cctv the same thing? they don't prevent a damn thing.they just film whats happening.
They want to impose a 5 year sentence just for carrying a knife.
Way back when,in ohio,it was 8 years just for committing a crime with a gun;THEN they got to the crime commited with said firearm!
And over here,when you get a life sentence in court,they actually have a 2nd court date to determine the ACTUAL time you must spend in prison.
what the hell is that about?!
LIFE IS FRIKKEN LIFE!
So what is it?
keep putting innocent (soft targets) in jail? Level the playing field and make the criminals nervous?
crucify the bastards in court and make life mean life?!

I am open to suggestions....
unless your only suggestions are followed by an orange-mocha-frappa-whatever in the hell tree huggin hippies consume..
not interested.

[monkey]

Ok duckie-brithish it is so dont tuff it none.Theres always a way as they are daft & bit touched.So lets look at what about the field & how to even it up.As a kali-arnis-escrima player we look at the pratical.You dont have to have a so called street knife.For start a kali stick is made of rattan.It can tack a bit so we look at what else can be used & as effective,a tightly rolled news paper can be of help.Now I had a kid & I found that a lot of kids stuff is deployable.Example (some of the swings they use here are wind up & rocks it to sleep)Now the side poles are of a tough plastic & useful as a stick type.There are verious ways to look at things like car antenas-hub caps-bolts-fish hooks.I know you can carry them.The list gose on & endless.Just depends on your arena of skills in the art & how to train each house hold item.Even a small can of spray deoderent or chew tabaco.Use you mind to think a bit.Dont daft the wagger.Got to get it together.So in the words of my late friend John Winston Lennon(Instant Karma is gona get you-gona duck you in the head.Better get yourself together.)

[Damien Alexander]

thanks for the heads up on the common sense side.
But I am reffering to the self-imposed ignorance of the legal issues here.
The advice you gave was fine,but we are right back to square 1.
ANYTHING you use here is considered illegal.
"self-defense" as a whole was illegal here until a few years ago.
The courts ay it's "intent to do bodily harm to another human being".
Damn right it is!
BUT......
ANYTHING you use in self-defense is considered with "intent".
you "intend" on hurting the guy who is stabbing your girlfriend to death right in front of your eyes.so YOU get boned for using a weapon with "intent".
Get this for a side bar..
2 weeks ago the british police did a raid on a house and confiscated a Bat'lith.
(klingon 2 handed weapon....KLINGON) and the owner is being charged with being in posession of a weapon designed specifically for decapitation.
See what we are dealing with? what kind of mentality we are dealing with?!

[arnisador]

For those not familiar with the issues, this discussion started here (http://fmatalk.com/showthread.php?t=385) where there are many links to stories about knives in the U.K. (That thread is itself a continuation of posts I made in the Knife Arts section of MartialTalk (www.martialtalk.com).) It seems to be a very hot issue over there. There are "knife amnesty" programs where police collect knives, claims of a knife crime "epidemic", calls for restrictions on kitchen knives by the medical community, etc.

I think it's crazy to restrict people from carrying a reasonable-sized pocket knife. It is, after all, a tool. Focusing on intent seems like a good idea to me, if the focus is well-intentioned. If you intended to defend yourself, you should get a break. If they're just out to get you, of course, it's a different matter.

I'm here in the States, but from where I sit it seems like the slippery slope. They have been fairly effective in restricting guns. What's the next most common weapon? Knives. Keep on applying this logic until they're trying to ban phone cords because someone was once strangled with one.

People see stories like this one (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060529-072601-5431r) from the U.K. and, because they've been told it's part of an epidemic, get very worked up about it; in the U.S. we see a story like this one (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060521-1104-stabdeath.html) and, because we don't put it in the same context, say "Gee, that's too bad" and move on. It's just as Bammx2 says...it's the mentality. Those concerned about knife crime have won the PR war. If you stand up for knives there you'll look like the NRA does here: Overzealous.

The worst thing is, while a gun is not trivial to get over there, any idiot can make a knife/shiv in his own kitchen. If screwdrivers are legal, you've got a stabbing weapon. So it will truly be a case of If knives are outlawed, only outlaws...

[Damien Alexander]

I must say that I do agree with the "intent" part if it IS done with good intent.
But it is used as a blanket and anything less is considered discrminatory profiling.
There is another story today on the bbc website that states a 17yr old has been charged with "wounding with intent".
He only stabbed a 19 yr old store employee 7 times and cost him 4 litres of blood.
I think that would be "attempted murder". But not here.
As stated before,it's the menality.
They truely lost generations here because of the arrogance of the british legal system.They MUST look out for thier subjects because they have not deemed them capable of learning about what scares "them".
As one man said here: " we cannot rely on our kids to fix this country.we will have to teach our grandkids the right way so they can do it".
And I do agree on the overzealousness of standing up for knives.
It's not so much the standing up for knives I am worried about as I am about living in a society where you are automatically branded not smart to know the difference between right and wrong from birth and maintain that mentality your entire life.
I know of a few people here who haved carried a knife thier entire adult life for work,got arrested because it has a locking blade and now have a criminal record.A record with "intent".
I feel like abby hoffman reborn.......
In this country,you can actually be charged with intent if you are a practicing pugilist of any kind if you say "I intend to defend myself".
You "intend" to hurt another person. But that depends on the cop and the judge.It hasn't happened yet,but it is a possibility since it is on the books.
They seem to be afraid of education for the masses.........

[arnisador]

There's no winning. Knife crime is a real problem, as this recent post (http://www.fmatalk.com/showthread.php?t=970) reminds us. Yet, knives are tools that people need! I don't have the solution.