Knife Crime.

When I was a lad a penknife was used to cut names in trees, peel and core apples, or to sharpen pencils. Yep that's right we used it as a tool. It didn't even enter our heads to walk up to someone, pick a fight and stab them with it.

It seems this day and age a penknife carrier is a criminal. But surely it's the man or woman behind the knife and how he uses it that makes the criminal?

There have been 20+ knife stabbing/killing crimes in the last few months.
So I say this. All the politicians on the TV who try to show the stabber the damage done to the stabbed in hospital, it's a bloody joke, pardon the pun.
A victim is never going to want to see them! They may want to take some revenge too, so who ever thought, I know, lets bring them together again, is plain stupid.

Now I bash the Americans and their stupidity quite a lot, as they seem to do stuff that only suits themselves. But the mayor of New York which at the time was quite a nasty area, brought about a zero tolerance plan. Three strikes and you get locked up for ever. That was just for minor petty crime! You get life and sometimes death for the bigger crimes.

So to the idiots Hazel Blears the one time Secretary of State for Communities and now Deputy Leader of Labour, and Jacquie Smith the Home Secretary come on TV stating there is a knife problem and it isn't easily fixed. COMPLETE CRAP!

They both "don't want to walk the streets at night because they feel unsafe", yet they have a police escort and bodyguard. So if they don't want to walk about with guards as protection, is it any wonder youths carry weapons to protect themselves?

Whats the solution? Zero tolerance. Carry a weapon with intent, and I mean here if you belong to a known gang culture, you get 5 years minimum prison sentence. Lets not pussy foot around.
If you are walking home at night and you have a knife on you and you aren't camping, that also means to me you intend to use it as protection or for force and you also get the sentence.

Killers whether using guns or knives should be hung.
There is an exception here. Sexual abuse and prolonged bullying in marriage or relationships where you snap and kill does not fall under this category.
Where there is unequivocal evidence and eyewitnesses, then hanging must take place to be a deterrent.

Victims have lost their rights in favour of the criminal.
So Blears and Smith, it is easy. Stop bullshitting the journalists and trying to become little media Divas. Amend the legal statutes for quick convictions when there is overwelming evidence. Lock people up for longer. Bring back Hanging. Set up a Zero Tolerance policy and stick to it.

GET SOME DECENT JUDGES THAT ARE IN TOUCH WITH THE EVERYDAY PEOPLE - NOT FROM CLOUD CUCKOOLAND - as an example, why lock up a shop lifter for two years, when you can kill a family while being on your mobile, whilst driving a car, and yet get a smaller sentance? Sentances dont seem at all comparable for the crimes caused. For one, say you took a pair of socks. The other is blatant negligence when in charge of what can be a lethal weapon in a poor drivers hands.

You may even want to use the dreaded common sense approach, which we seemed to be losing in this day and age.

I say a victim has the rights and the criminal loses theirs! If a criminal breaks into my home or vandalises my property, I should be allowed to defend it and myself with as much force as I deem fit to use, because the criminal should not be there in the first place! If I stab him, I am with in my rights to, only because he was doing something he shouldn't be doing.

Of course any out of normal hours calling at a house, with reputable people, they will knock at the door, and, or telephone you. So don't attack the postman just for giving you your gas bill. . .