Can't disagree with any of that but I still don't see how to change it without taking a backward step in social behaviour. I think if we err towards the 'lock 'em up and throw away the key' school of thought then it's a step on a slippery slope to somewhere I'd rather we did not go. In terms of concern and sympathy for the families of victims I believe there is never any shortage of that but I don 't know how it can be expressed in any sort of worthwhile, tangible capacity. Some might say more stringent sentencing would be some compensation, I'm not sure it would be in the longer term and I would also doubt the deterrent value. One of the saddest aspects of this, to me at least, is that it's a reminder of what we are still capable of. It will happen again, there'll be more distraught bereaved families, and there will be debates like this about sentencing policy. I just hope it happens less and less often.
We actually have pretty strict knife laws in this country The fact we don't enforce already existing laws tells you more laws are not going to change anything
The new laws making it illegal to own zombie knives and machetes only actually came into effect six days ago.
The laws we have had for years, possession of an offensive weapon and carrying a knife with a blade over a few inches made the zombie knifes illegal anyway. The old laws were not enforced, one kid was caught with a knife (18?) loads of times before he even got taken to court. Stop and search was/is deemed to be racist.
"Stop andsearch was/is deemed to be racist." Yes, due to poor policing and ill considered pressure groups. To enforce a difficult law you need intelligent and mindful enforcers, at the top. Foot soldiers face what's in front of them and the opposition is better funded.
First of all it's good to see you post and confirm you're still around. Regarding stop and search, if it is found that a particular demographic is carrying out the majority of any particular crime within a defined area then it makes sense to target that demographic.
It does, although that wasn’t why the most stopped and searched were from one particular group, nor did the Police claim that to be the case, even when asked to justify it by Inspectors (if they had shown that the demographic of the people searched matched the demographic of people who were carrying out a particular crime or carrying what they were looking for, then it wouldn’t have been stopped) Stop and search as a policy isn’t racist, but too many of the frontline Police implementing it were, even if subconsciously
