We Have Lost Too Many Lives — This Has To Stop
Harold Hill community champion Rico Maza writes in the Havering Daily on the horrors of knife crime. Rico attended yesterday’s anti-knife crime vigil in Romford.
We have lost too many lives.
This has to stop.
We, the ordinary people, have to demand change from our MPs and remind them strongly that they are in office to serve us.
At the moment, if you are caught carrying a knife or machete for a first offence, it is unlikely that you will end up in a young offenders institution or prison.
This has to change.
The Youth Endowment Fund charity says that more than 85,000 young people between the ages of 13 and 17 are carrying a knife or machete on their person.
This is horrifying.
Stop and search should remain an important tool in the fight against knife crime.
We should have dedicated knife crime courts.
If you are found carrying an illegal knife or machete, you should be taken into police custody, charged and brought before a magistrates’ court as soon as possible.
If convicted, there should be meaningful consequences.
In the past ten years, more than 600 young people under the age of 24 have been murdered with a knife in England and Wales.
Think about that for a moment.
More than 600 sons.
More than 600 daughters.
Hundreds of families left devastated.
Hundreds of futures stolen.
Hundreds of empty seats at family tables.
Yet still the violence continues.
Every week we hear of another young person losing their life. Every week another family begins a journey of grief that no parent should ever have to endure.
Yesterday, I stood alongside bereaved mothers, families, councillors and residents at an anti-knife crime vigil outside Havering Town Hall.
The pain carried by those families is unimaginable.
Many of them have spent years campaigning, speaking in schools, installing bleed kits and trying to stop other families from suffering the same heartbreak.
They should not have to carry that burden alone.
This is not a problem for the police alone.
It is not a problem for schools alone.
It is not a problem for parents alone.
It is a problem for all of us.
If we are serious about tackling knife crime, then communities, politicians, police, schools, youth services and families must work together.
We cannot simply accept this as normal.
We cannot continue counting the victims.
We cannot keep losing our young people.
Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.
— Rico Maza, Harold Hill Community Champion
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