Do not normalise knife crime, ask why are children as young as 12 carrying knives.

Your normalisation of knife crime has led to this becoming a public health crisis.

‘Knife crime has been going on for years, the Krays carried knives, this is not a a new problem.’ These are just some of the comments people use to normalise the horrors of knife crime in our society. Yes knife crime is not a new problem, however what is a new problem is that children and let me repeat that, children as young as 12 years old are packing knives in their school bag instead of books and your views of normalising knife crime is exactly what has led us to the horrors that we see on our streets today.

Yes, the Krays carried knives and guns, and for the record, two out of the three brothers died in prison, is that something you want to glorify? Reginald Kray was released from prison due to health concerns and died shortly after being released. Both twins were murderers, so yes the Krays carried knives, but do you really want to compare what is going on in our society today, to two violent murderers?

Knife crime isn’t a new problem, we all accept that. What is a new problem however is the age of people carrying knives and their open use on our streets so blatantly. Children are carrying knives, children as young as 12 year old are now caught and convicted of knife crime. Children aged 14 years old are arrested for murder. These are new problems, and people’s generalisation and most importantly normalisation of knife crime, has led to this problem now being out of control.

The horrendous stabbing of a man onboard a train last week has led to people talking about knife crime. The 19 year old responsible for the attack was seen walking along the street openly carrying his knife completely careless of what people think. This is not normal, and it is not acceptable and instead of trying to normalise this behaviour, people should be urgently calling it out. But they are not and instead are choosing to say-‘Well knife crime is not a new problem’.

What people should be doing now is calling out these horrors and urgently addressing why these problems are happening.Knife crime is being tackled by bereaved parents and outstanding knife crime campaigners who work tirelessly with our youth to prevent them from gang crime. It is, however being ignored by all those in authority who should be looking at why this problem has become a public health crisis.

Police officers across the country are the ones who face the first line horror of knife crime.They can tell us the reality of these horrors on our streets daily. It is also a problem that can not be solved by the police alone. It urgently needs a whole community approach to address it at the roots. The question that should be asked by those in authority is why? Why are children going to school with knives? Why are children killing each other? Why are children dying on our streets?

The set up of our society is decaying and fast. Important services needed in our communities such as schools, hospitals, medical surgeries, youth clubs, social workers, mental health support are all at breaking point, which then impacts our communities. Children are watching parents struggle to put food on the table, parents struggling to put a roof over their heads or children living in hostels. Somewhere across London today is a 14 year old boy selling drugs as part of county lines to pay for his mother’s tv and car insurance. One mother in Camden whose 14 year old son was arrested for selling drugs on a council estate, pleaded with officers not to arrest him as his money was supporting other children at home. This is the reality, this is what urgently needs to be looked at instead of normalising knife crime.

Prison is not the answer, rehabilitation, education and support is the way to go forward.

It is time, we start to look at what our youth are going through and address the problems these children are growing up with before our society crumbles completely.

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