Can’t say I disagree with the proposed increased in sentencing for those committing Murder with a knife. 30 years tariff up from 15 is more like it, but is it likely to bring about a reduction in knife murders? I doubt it. What makes some people pick up a knife and walk out the door? I can understand the fear element in some youngsters, who feel the streets are not safe, I’ve posted about it previously but it’s not just about educating them through knife campaigns.
There needs to be more fear about being caught with a knife. I know of one individual who ran from police and dumped a nasty knife under a car but was still captured and convicted. He was an adult with some previous for violence but he didn’t get jail time. This was just before the so called knife crackdown. Within 6 months he’d gone out with a knife again, got into an argument with a stranger over something ridiculous and stabbed him dead.
I knew the killer reasonably well and I think I might have signed his passport photo a few years back, if I didn’t he at least asked me to. Not a really horrible bloke and we got on fine, he’d been stabbed himself in his mid teens. I’d heard rumours on the street that he’d had a run in with a baby gangster and that’s why he might have been carrying. If he hadn’t got banged up he might have been killed himself. The end result is one innocent dead and he himself now paying the price.
I may be wrong but I’m not seeing much evidence of strong sentencing for possessing knives. Say the killer mentioned got 12 months for possessing the knife in the first instance, he would have still been out in plenty of time to commit the murder. Would the knowledge that being stopped again carrying resulting in a longer sentence, have prevented him picking up the knife? Only he knows the answer to that, but getting a walk out originally didn’t help him much in the long run. Incidentally the baby gangster he was possibly in fear of is also now dead. It’s getting rather rough out there.
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