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Blood and guts tactics to stem teen stabbings
Justin Davenport, Evening Standard30 May 2008
This graphic image is from shocking footage being posted on the internet and sent to mobile phones to stop teenagers using knives.
The footage shows a Swiss Army knife and a screwdriver sticking out of a stab victim's chest. It is part of a viral internet video which is being used in a drive to show the bloody effects of knife crime.
Eighteen young people developed concepts for the series, launched by the Home Office, and acted in radio adverts which are part of a £3 million campaign over the next three years.
The campaign will target social networking sites, including Bebo, as well as mobiles. Postcards depicting a hand mutilated by a knife attack are being handed out on the streets. There are two viral internet videos. The first features the images of knife wounds, taken from a medical photo library, as slides in a fictional medical lecture given by a surgeon who has to deal with such injuries.
A second viral, which will also appear on www.itdoesnthavetohappen.co.uk, shows CCTV footage - performed by actors - of a stabbing on a shopping street. One of the creative team, Khadijah-Murchison, 18, from Bristol, said: "All the young people that went to the creative summit have been affected by knife crime, so to share our experiences with each other and come up with ideas and adverts that will help reduce knife crime was great."
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said: "We know that many young people carry a knife because they are fearful and these adverts tell powerful stories about the dangers of going down that path.
"People have got to get the message that if they carry a knife, there's more chance of it being used against them."
The programme found that young people carried a blade out of fear and through a dislike for authority figures who may have acted violently towards them.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair today unveiled a haul of deadly weapons recovered during the first two weeks of a blitz on knife crime.
He called for drastic measures in a bid to stem a surge of stabbings and attacks in the capital. Officers have stepped up stop-and-search operations after a wave ofmurders.
A 17-year-old boy's death last night has taken the number of teenagers killed in London violence this year to 15.
The boy was shot in the head on Saturday night in Gilbeys Yard, Camden, and officers from Operation Trident, the Met's black-on-black gun crime unit, are investigating the possibility that the shooting was a drugs-related gang attack. A man and three boys were today due to appear at Dewsbury court charged with murdering 17-year-old Amar Aslam, who died in Crow Nest Park, West Yorkshire, on Sunday.
Three juveniles arrested have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
Click here to see the 'CCTV' knife attack advert
Click here to visit itdoesnthavetohappen
Reader views (8)
Typical weak response from the worst ever government this country has ever had.
Send those with knives to jail.
- Henry, Manchester, UK, 29/05/2008 22:47
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Wow, looks like banning all weapons and guns has really driven down the violent crime rate! I can't wait until we can do that and see our violent crime rate climb to even higher levels!
- Jeff, California, US, 29/05/2008 20:13
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Its moronic to refer to this behaviour as "knife crime". The knife doesn't do anything by itself. This is called anthropomorphism - assigning human traits to inanimate objects. This language is dangerous because it immediately shifts the focus to eliminating knives instead of eliminating behaviour. Remove the behavior, the vial criminals who behave in this manner. Don't waste time and money trying to keep criminals from acquiring sharp objects. It doesn't even work in prisons. Punish those who commit crimes severely and publicly. Behaviour patterns will change accordingly.
- Proudamerican, Dallas, USA, 29/05/2008 18:59
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So the key to protecting themselves is to disarm themselves? It's very sad that the right to self defence has been so reduced in the UK and that the solution to encouraging more problems seems to only be that you should walk about completely disarmed. What's next? Ban rocks and sticks? Only in the UK.
- Mark, Raleigh USA, 29/05/2008 18:38
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They are bored largely because they choose not to participate: they have far more to do than teens from say the 60's before the playstation, multi channel TV and other entertainments. Most kids in the 60's had little more than the youth club and Saturday matinee cinemas.... Oh and of course so many things are deemed too dangerous for the little darlings.
- Naomi Sajeri, Manchester, 29/05/2008 18:36
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Teaching younger children about the dangers of knife and gun crime is forever coming under scrutiny because of a danger of taking away their childhood innocence.
But surely it's the only way? We have to start making very, very young children aware of these issues. Ok, a harsh reality for a young child. True. But not as harsh as these young children becoming victims of a growing trend a few years later.
- Stacey, Manchester, UK., 29/05/2008 15:51
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Teenagers need to participate in extra-curricular activities, whether it be sports, scouts or after school clubs, or some community activities. They are bored and see no other valuable way of utilizing their free time.
- Miguel Vargas, London, 29/05/2008 14:57
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This will only encourage the little scum.
- Pat, London, 29/05/2008 14:50
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