Teach them before its too late

11:30am Wednesday 16th July 2008

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So here we are again – another teenager stabbed to death and another devastated family. As Boris Johnson put it, we are the culture of stabbing.

But according to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, we are getting sucked into tabloid hype and knife crime is “no more serious than it has been previously.”

Just eight hours before she issued her words of comfort to an understandably worried nation though, a 20-year-old woman was stabbed to death just 500 metres away from Ms Smith’s London home.

Her comments were used following the stabbing of Ben Kinsella, the eighteenth teenager to die a violent death in London since the beginning of the year.

He was not in a gang and he did not get into trouble at school. Instead, he was a bright boy who excelled in most subjects and had hopes of becoming an actor.

Police are describing him as an innocent victim, someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But as more candles are lit and another family begs children to put down their weapons, we are told not to worry.

Sir Ian Blair claims that crime in London is not out of control and the most recent crime survey by the Meteropolitan Police shows that knife crime has dropped by 15.7 per cent over the past two years.

But an indicator that teenagers are worried for their safety was highlighted a tabloid released a copy of a story that Ben wrote for his English GCSE exam, where he penned his own fate.

“I’ve been stabbed,” he wrote, “three times in the chest, twice in the back and once in the gut for good measure.” The description goes on to describe how he lies on the cold pavement before losing consciousness and waking up in heaven.

For a teenager to write something so vivid shows a great deal of what they perceive to be problems in society.

In a bid to sort out the problem once and for all, 500 teenagers wearing white t-shirts as a symbol of peace marched to the spot where the 16-year-old was repeatedly stabbed. Many of the shirts had personal messages while most opted for ‘RIP Ben’ and ‘You’re an angel.’ But despite the concern shown by many teenagers, Jacqui Smith has continued to try and calm us down by saying that anyone caught carrying a knife is three times more likely to be jailed for the offence.

She added: “People have to understand, if you go out on the streets with a knife, you’re not safer, you’re putting yourself and other people in danger.”

It is a hard situation.

We hear the stories of boys like Ben out playing football and avoiding mischief who are then approached by gangs of thugs brandishing knives. It makes sense for many to want to carry a weapon to use in self defence.

And there is not much of a deterrent to not carry one.

They know that the law is so feebly enforced that they can get away with a slapped wrist if they are caught with a knife in their possession. But at the same time, they know that they have a real chance of being defenceless when attacked if they do not carry one.

This mentality seems to be reflected by the reports of The Youth Justice Board which has found a prominent increase in the last five years in the number of teenagers who are arming themselves.

As a result, knife violence is now running as high as gun crime in some US cities. So what is the solution?

Boris Johnson has announced plans to cover London with knife arches – airport style metal detectors to search people for deadly weapons. He already has 150 to go and has instructed police to start setting them up at busy transport hubs. But it sounds like an administration nightmare, with mobile phones and key rings being likely offenders for setting them off.

There is also talk of giving speeches in schools to send a warning message about knife violence. But who will be giving these speeches? When I was at school, we had weekly Personal Social Education (PSE) where we would cover topics such as drugs and alcohol abuse. The problem was, we had a 60-year-old teacher telling us to never take drugs or drink alcohol because it was very bad. He had obviously never taken a drug in his life and we knew he probably only drank alcohol on his birthday so his message went in one ear and out the other.

If someone says do not do something, we need to know why. If teenagers heard the stories of the families who had lost someone to knife violence, the message would be more poignant. Likewise, if they hear the story of someone who went to prison for stabbing someone, it may act as a deterrent when they hear of the lack of freedom they had and the life they lost out on. But these measures are only maybes. There is no quick fix way of dealing with this issue but as tomorrow’s newspaper will no doubt report on yet another fatal stabbing, it is clear that something has to be done.