Shall I take a stab in the dark and say I dont think this will work? Yr views please?

Question

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4324738.ece

Answer 1

Just goes to show how completely out of touch these politicians are.

Answer 2

This raises more questions than she’s answered!

I’ll take her comments one at a time:

“It is simplistic and wrong to pretend that prison is an easy answer to all of society’s problems”.

Decodes as:

I can’t threaten to send them to prison because I know that all the prisons are nearly full.

“The police, as well as judges and community leaders don’t want every single young person found carrying a knife jailed.......”

Now how does she know that?

Has she spoken to every member of the police force, all the judges and community leaders?

(Who exactly are these 'community leaders' anyway?)

Most unlikely!

The public are made of more than just police, judges and community leaders!

Has she spoken to the any of the relatives of knife crime victims – probably not?

“......especially when we know that tough community sentences including community payback, supervision and electronically monitored curfews are more likely to stop them carrying knives in the future”

Who is the ‘we’ ‘that know'?

Which ‘tough community sentences’ are those?

What the h**l is ‘community payback’?

I can’t see how any of these are actually stop ‘them carrying knives in the future’.

“I am particularly concerned about the young age of offenders and victims - that is why today I am again emphasising what action we have taken and what new action we are demanding.”

(Possible ageist comment here – she should possibly report herself the Harriet Harman!)

So it’s OK if older people start knifing each other then?

And what exactly is the action that has been taken?

I would have thought the A&E departments are busy enough without having ‘visits’!

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has jumped on the bandwagon – how are people going to be reported without compromising patient confidentiality?

What about the confidentiality of the victims in A&E departments?

Tony Blair said that the Labour Party would be “tough on crime – tough on the causes of crime”.

So when are they going to start?

Answer 3

Will never work. These people do not have any feeling for anyone else. They clearly don't have respect for the Police or their elders so why would this affect them at all. It won't! They should be sent to prison or even better a borstal where they can learn respect the hard way.

They should also stop the benefits going to the parents as a reason for them to discipline their kids.

Seriously though what is it going to take for this rubbish government to do something about it. Sadly it'll take the murder of one of their kids to do that.

Answer 4

Mmmm just what you need when you are recovering from a stabbing having someone capable of doing it to you again paraded in front of you.  Another stupid idea from a completely stupid government

Answer 5

this is gordon brown taking tough measures . haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaa. well done gordon. that'll show em wont it

Answer 6

People caught carrying knives should be forced to visit the morgues where the victims lie,Shock them into stopping carrying a knife in future.

Answer 7

I don't know. It might work for someone who was feeling guilty and sorry and re-enforce the idea of wanting to change and get away for the environment that caused them to follow the path they did.

But the first time there is a re-offender, especially if a knife is involved then it will be condemned as a failure. The problem with all these initiatives is, they are limited in scope and driven by a desire to 'do something'

They are a one size fits all solution and so cannot expect to have any meaningful long term result as they are not based on any analysis on the causes of the incidents.

The government does not want to have an analysis in case it throws up elements of gang culture linked to contentious areas such as race and immigration.

Answer 8

I dont think it will work either. What happened to getting tough on crime?

Dan thats a ridiculous argument. If they are carrying a knife for defence then it follows that they would be prepared to use it.

Answer 9

Edit - it might help at least some of them.

Answer 10

It wouldn't bother them at all.They have no morals,no standards,no discipline.How would facing the victims help?

They were callous and evil enough to do the crime in the first place.These idiots have no conscience at all

Answer 11

Pathetic attempt to do something, anything, except that which is proven to work, and that is to take them out of Society and into Her Majesty's Prison. It is not Rocket Science, if we have more Knife Crime then we need more Prisons.

Answer 12

Is  that the best they can come up with? JC we are ruled by idiots!

Answer 13

I was just thinking that!  If I were in hospital after being stabbed the last thing I'd want is some chavy kid coming in to 'chat'.  Do these people not think at all?  What on earth gave them this idea?

Answer 14

Won't work.

If someone remains a knife-carrying gang member remains a knife-carrying gang member, even after one of their friends has been shot, or stabbed or whatever, then a random stranger who had to spend a few weeks in hospital isn't going to make them change their lives.