Search blog for knife crime info

Monday, November 23, 2009

Destruction of men in their prime - by knives, guns and other weapons

"GooOOOD Morning VietNAM! It's time to rock + soul u from the delta to the DMC. It's 0600. [slight pause] What does the '0' stand for... Oh My God it's early."

Iraq and war are in the news (banks too in the City today - you'll need to read other parts of this blog to understand how this is connected to (knife) crime and violence - a couple of posts about 'banks' are shown here).

Violence and peace are intrinsically linked with this knife crime blog so had been thinking about Vietnam as well as wars generally - and that excellent film 'Good Morning Vietnam' with Robin Williams as DJ Adrian Cronauer.

The average age of the American soldier in the Vietnam conflict was 19... nineteen... Terrible, tragic waste of good, decent lives who were loved by many in life - not unlike many knife and gun crime victims :'-(

Death and destruction of men in their prime who's average age was 19. Is this what's happening in Afghanistan - while fat, bullied and bullying political leaders don't know how to get peace, they send in soldiers, sailors + air forces...

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Daence, music, no knives and no crime - ever?

"If you have a knife in your pocket you'll end up using it"... runs the promo line on Facebook group 'You Have A Choice'.

'Don't Shank Just Skank' - Adam Deacon talks knives and knife crime (www.itdoesnthavetohappen.co.uk)

Adulthood and Kidulthood star points out there are other options in life rather than picking up / carrying a knife. Knives and professionalism don't mix. "Don't Shank Just Skank" - out now. Worth buying to help maybe.



Sunday, November 15, 2009

Tackling (knife) crime's causes - New FSA powers coming...

You may recall an older post about my saying that the FSA (Financial Services Authority) had some teeth to help change the state of banking and business that might give some hope for young people with little hope of a better life to be able to aspire to better things...
(Follow that link to check what I said)

Well, it's happened a bit, hasn't it? Good news for a Sunday, I reckon - FSA to get power to stop 'reckless' bankers by cutting bonuses.

Not bad, surely.

[Am putting together a more thoughtful piece for next (all being well) knife crime blog post...] Keep the faith, people.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Remembrance Sunday... For armed forces who have died


"THEY shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning... We will remember them." - You can read The Fallen poem here.



Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Laurence Binyon: "With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea."

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Current UK political corruption harms knife crime, gun crime and anti-violence campaiging

The systemic corruption in the UK's political 'organisation' (i.e. Parliament and MPs - and presumably the Civil Service too) is adversely affecting and undermining the work of anti-knife and gun crime campaigners, and those trying to tackle violence in our society.

By far the strongest illustration of this, as far as knife and other crime is concerned, is former (and disgraced) Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. Her perverse moral leadership (claiming huge sums of taxpayers money for a second home as well as the porn video fiasco) left the Home Office rudderless at a time when the anti-violence campaigners were building some momentum. I'm not saying that momentum has gone for good - but the behaviour of MPs like Jacqui Smith has hampered the work of so many families, crime victims etc at a time when they needed people with power to help them push for required change. This is much more than letting people down. Reflect on that Ms Smith and for God's sake... resign. Get a proper job and see how you get on there.

At the same time and for the same reasons, co-ordinated attempts, communications and PR efforts to highlight and tackle violent crime seem to have fallen by the wayside to some degree because politicians have demonstrated time and again that they are more interested in themselves, their salaries, commercial interests, etc, rather than those people suffering in the midst of a violent culture.

With the Government and opposition parties in disarray due to the corrupt parliamentarian compensation system they have been happy to be part of for years, these ego-centred MPs (I can't call them public servants - they haven't served, they have stolen) continue to demonstrate more interest in themselves than victims of crime and the issue of violent crime, sadly.

PM Gordon Brown recognised this when he said, "Never again should a Member of Parliament be more interested in the value of their allowances than the values of their constituents." And then this autumn Gordon Brown was ordered to pay back more than £12,000 of overpaid expenses.

All this goes beyond words - these people have lost sight of principles and morals. They have literally been "fiddling while Rome (the UK) burns". Are we seriously going to let any of these intrinsically corrupt people to administer our hard-earned taxes from now on?

This week there has been the publication of more worrying knife crime statistics and a terrible stabbing attack which further highlights a lack of impetus to tackle this key law and order issue.

A church volunteer was stabbed trying to protect children from a gang of marauding youths - awful that this can happen on UK streets. If this continues, I can see a rise of vigilantism in communities because there is insufficient capability to police - a problem Jackie Smith would normally be fixing - but she can't... she's lost any public mandate to address this.

So where are the country's leaders at this time? I don't think there are any good leaders now. Everyone's gone to ground trying to work out how to keep their jobs at the next election rather than tackle crime and violence. It's disgraceful. Someone needs to be pushing the police and law enforcement authorities to do more. Instead, we now have ineptitude and complacency creeping in.

Jackie Smith and her ilk need to reflect on facts like that when adopting an apologetic tone in front of cameras and the media. All their selfish, materialist grasping has led to a crisis that has undoubtedly led to more suffering for crime victims and those trying to tackle this scourge of violence around us. Now we have to wait while Alan Johnson gets up to speed - and I noticed today that he's winding up people already, making all the scientists walk out.

I'm beginning to wonder if Labour has much of a clue anymore. Lost touch with their grass roots certainly, I believe.

Jacqui Smith and others like her taking vast amounts of cash etc are a disgrace to hard working, honest citizens such as these. We don't need people like these in public life, we don't want to see them. Why are they hanging around? We just want them to f-ing clear off.

To my mind, having a vote at election time is not sufficient. The voters need to hold MPs to account more often and more effectively than at election time. Their complicit acceptance of a corrupt expenses and payment system over many years makes them unfit to govern.

Those MPs with a conscience need to re-appraise and better assess their priorities. Some are maybe trying to do this (ever the optimist) - but such change is hardly shining through the darkness, is it?

Probably though, better people who know how to serve the public are required. Or maybe things would be better if there was simply more power for the people?