UK : Knife attacks surge 73% as amnesty fails

Times online ^ | 08/09/2006 | Richard Ford

[BlessedBeGod]

Well, duh.

[Lurker]

I can't imagine what the problem is.

L

[Dallas59]

The best thing to do is put something in the water..../s

[Lurker]

“As long as there is unsliced bread, opportunities for knife crime will exist.”

Britain is doomed.

And this one just made me laugh right out loud:

Mothers Against Murder and Aggression

I've either got to laugh at they Pythonesque silliness of it all or slam my head into my desk.

L

[Dallas59]

BAN UNSLICED BREAD!

[thoughtomator]

Spork attacks, thankfully, are still rare...

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Chorus:
"Please Mother don't stab Father with the BREAD-KNIFE,
Remember 'twas a gift when you were wed.
But if you must stab Father with the BREAD-KNIFE,
Please Mother use another for the BREAD."


--- Robert Service

[John Lenin]

1984- George Orwell

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below. Scattered about London there were just three other buildings of similar appearance and size. So completely did they dwarf the surrounding architecture that from the roof of Victory Mansions you could see all four of them simultaneously. They were the homes of the four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided. The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs.

Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty.

[dsc]

Another Robert Service fan? I never ran into one before.

When you're lost in the wild...

[dsc]

“Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.” (A sword is never a killer; it is a tool in the killer’s hands.)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 45 AD

1,961 years to think about it, and people still don't get it.

[Pontiac]

“There is insufficient evidence that a knife amnesty or increasing sentence length for carrying knives will decrease the level of knife use and carrying.”

Chris Eades, author of the report, was critical of the strategy adopted by the Government and police. “Relying on an implausible view that increased sentence length will have a deterrent effect, it seems unlikely that the Government’s chosen policy will have an impact on knife carrying in public.”

I wonder if Mr. Eades would have a problem in drawing parallels between knives and firearms with these statements.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://www.mochinet.com/poets/service/index.cgi

Very good set of his works at above URL.

[Pontiac]

I wonder if they have any ethnic data relating to the “violent attacks using a knife on a stranger.”

I would be curious to know if Arabs or Muslims are represented disproportionately in these knife attacks to their numbers in England and Wales.

[Dallas59]

1. Crimestop
"The faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. In short....protective stupidity."

2. Crimethink
To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of Ingsoc. Doubting any of the principles of Ingsoc. All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. "Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death, Thoughtcrime is death.... The essential crime that contains all others in itself."

3. Facecrime
"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called."

4. Free
Only exist in the sense of "The dog is free of lice". The concept of political freedom has been replaced by the word crimethink.

5. Inner Party
Official Party members. Upper class. About 6 million individuals (or 2%) of the population in Oceania fall into this class. They posses most of the comforts of today's middle class (with the addition of two or three servants and possibly a helicopter).

6. Malreported
When the Times reports a fact which the government later deemed untrue. You see, the government is never "wrong", the paper merely reported the facts incorrectly. This term was often used in describing newspaper articles that contained references to unpersons, unfulfilled economic projections, or altered government policies.

7. Outer Party
Middle class. Bureaucrats, and other government employees. Comprising approximately 13% of population. There is a huge gap between the standard of living of Inner and Outer party members. Outer Party members have very little possessions, and almost no access to basic consumer goods. All outer party members have a telescreen in every room of their pathetic excuse for an apartment.

8. Prole
Proletarians. Approximately 85% of Oceania's population are in this class. Members of the party viewed them as animals. They are not as rigidly observed as members of the party, and very few (if any) have telescreens in their home. They are permitted to indulge in pornography, prostitution, and other acts considered thoughtcrime, simply because it would be impossible to observe all of them as rigidly as the party observes its own members. Plus, allowing them to indulge in these "little joys" helps to keep the masses content.

9. Thinkpol
ThoughtPolice. Police force in charge of eliminating crimethink. The thought police monitor the public by way of spies (narcs), helicopters, and telescreens.

[yankeedame]

To England:

[Brilliant]

"knife amnesty"



What the heck is this? Are the Brits making it illegal to have a knife now?

[cartan]

The number of robberies carried out using a knife rose by 15,000 to 40,400 in 2005-06; muggings involving a knife increased by 17,730 to 42,000 and violent attacks using a knife on a stranger rose 18,300 to 51,700.

Uhm, guys, could you perhaps focus on the robberies and muggings here, and stop worrying about knives for a second?

[elmer fudd]

And this one just made me laugh right out loud:

"Mothers Against Murder and Aggression"

Sounds like a worthwhile organization. I mean just think of all the people out there campaigning in favor of murder and aggression. I remember my own mother saying, "It's a beautiful evening. Why don't you go out and kill some nice young girl?", and now when I think about it that was just wrong. If there had been an organization like "Mothers Against Murder and Aggression", they might have shown me other methods of conflict resolution and educated me about racism, sexism and homophobia.