Why No One Actually Cares About Knife Crime.

There will be endless headlines across our news outlets today, predominately about the Met Police as always. One thing known for sure, is that knife crime will not be a headline despite its urgent need to be tackled.

Why is it no one actually cares about knife crime? It is the anti knife crime campaigners and bereaved parents that are on the frontline of this public health crisis. It is indeed them and our police officers that do face these horrendous issues daily.

Two weeks a 16 year old youth was arrested by Romford Town Centre officers for having a Samurai sword stashed away in his trousers and carrying bags of drugs. Readers commented in the hope that he would face a tougher sentence to deter him from carrying weapons again. Last week, the same youth was back on the streets of Romford carrying a knife. Police arrest him charge him and the week after, he is still a weapon carrier on the east London streets. Who actually cares? Does anyone take notice?

Bereaved parents fight knife crime everyday. They beg, plead, shout, cry for help to stop our youth from carrying a knife and losing their life. Yet no one listens and let’s face it, no one cares.

They live with the reality of what knife crime does to a family, they live broken lives having buried their child. Their pain is raw and they battle to stop other families going through the nightmare of what they have been through.

Peguy Kato lost her son Champion Ghanda in a brutal knife attack on the streets of Newham ten years ago. Her words cut into you, ‘When I was told he had died-I didn’t think the sun would ever shine again. My world was black’.

Sue Hedges had to turn her son Ricky Hayden’s life support machine off and watch his life fade away infront of her own eyes.

Julie Taylor wakes up every morning and for a split second still believes her grandson Liam is there until reality takes over and the pain comes crashing down as she is forced to acknowledge that the shining star in her family’s life, has gone.

These are broken women, they smile, they laugh, they make their voices heard, but behind every smile is a life torn apart by a tragedy that could have been prevented.

Today, many many young people across the capital will be getting dressed and adding a knife as they leave to go out. Who knows if they will return, or if that knife will either take their life, or see them being taken away in hand cuffs.

We have seen all the anti knife crime campaigners and bereaved parents urge the use of stop and search on our streets knowing full well that it is a life saving tool.

This month Romford Town Centre officers have removed virtually a knife a day off youths in the area. How many will have been removed thanks to stop and search across London and how many lives will have been spared?

Once again, no one will care about knife crime except those who deal with it daily. It has very little significance to those in authority as it should have.

The Mayor of London was quoted saying he would do everything in his power to cut stop and search.

The knife crime epidemic has taken control of the London streets -as campaigners and bereaved mums urged for more stop and search.

Campaigners and parents are tired of not being heard, of being ignored, of watching children lose their life. They fight the fight everyday.

Police officers deal with these horrendous crimes daily, they remove endless dangerous weapons off our streets, they put their own lives at risk frequently to remove these unbelievable weapons.

The reality is that youths as young as 14 are carrying knives and swords and prepared to use them.

For the record for people saying he was in the wrong place at the wrong time is complete nonsense. There is no wrong place at the wrong time, they should not be carrying knives. That is what our communities must tackle and that is what should be looked at and is not.

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