All spoons will have to be blunted. None of these Rambo-style combat spoons.
Posted on 05/29/2008 4:47:15 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
The most common knife used in teenage stabbings is taken from the kitchen, Sir Ian Blair has said.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner unveiled some of the deadly weapons seized during a two-week blitz on knife-carrying criminals at New Scotland Yard.
Sir Ian revealed that the majority of those weapons discovered on the streets of the capital were ordinary domestic knives.
He said more than 4,000 operations have been undertaken by his officers using arch metal detectors and handheld scanners.
As a result, more than 200 people have been arrested and almost 200 weapons have been seized.
Speaking hours after this year's teenage death toll in London reached 15, Sir Ian said youth violence has reached an unacceptable level.
More... Gruesome ad campaign showing bloody stab victims launched by Government to curb knife crime
He said: "The Met has stepped up its operations. With the support of the community, we have put search arches in place and in the last two weeks carried out more than 4,000 stop and search operations with more than 200 arrests and nearly 200 weapons seized.
"You are now more likely to be stopped and searched. If you are stopped and searched, you will be arrested if you are carrying a knife. If you are arrested you are likely to be prosecuted.
"To parents it is tough-love time. In addition to conversations about drink, drugs and relationships there are now conversations about knives.
200 knives have been seized by the police during Operation Blunt 2
"The most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife from the kitchen and we must have conversations about knife crime with teenagers."
In a report to the Metropolitan Police Authority today, Sir Ian said Operation Blunt, the name given to the anti-knife blitz, is targeting both where weapons are used and where those who use them live.
Sir Ian said officers have been deployed on 185 priority schools and colleges and each of the 59 units for excluded pupils across London. He revealed that the campaign will cost the Met up to £1million this year.
He said: "It is of critical importance that young people understand that carrying a knife is not cool and that choosing to carry a knife puts a young person at high risk of killing someone else, of being injured themselves and of going to prison.
"Ultimately, the aim is to encourage not only those whom young people respect and listen to to champion this approach, but also to find champions among young people themselves."
Operation Blunt is under way in every one of the 32 London boroughs, but extra resources are being sent to the 10 worst-hit areas including Lambeth, Southwark and Croydon.
Kit Malthouse, London deputy mayor responsible for crime, said he was "extremely pleased" with the police action.
He admitted increased stop-and-search operations could be controversial but he said officers had behaved "sensitively".
He said: "Some people out there oppose this type of operation but they come with no other type of solution.
"It is incumbent on us to recognise that every one of these knives recovered represents a tragedy averted and a life saved."
Kitchen knives are the most common weapons seized under the initiative
Mr Malthouse said that with every teenage death "a little bit of London dies too".
Cindy Butts, deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said Londoners must stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the police.
She said: "The black community supports Operation Blunt. What these communities want is increased stop and search.
"What they do not want is for police officers to go out on fishing expeditions where they cast their nets wide and see what they get back."
Ms Butts said the operation targeted places where knives were most likely to be carried and used. Officers deployed with metal detector arches and hand-held scanners targeted 10 London boroughs, including Southwark, Lambeth and Croydon.
She said: "It's important to emphasise that when the police get involved it is already too late."
Ping.
Gee, now why didn’t they think of this back in 1888. Then Jack The Ripper couldn’t have killed all those women.
Not to worry. Between mad cow disease and cholesterol, the government will soon be taking your steak as well.
I think the British police are already working on that...
All spoons will have to be blunted. None of these Rambo-style combat spoons.
Let us know how not being able to defend yourselves is workin’ out for you!!
The violent crime rate in Great Britain continues to rise, which only proves that they haven't gone far enough in banning potential weapons. When weapons of any kind are impossible to get (much like marijuana is now), Great Britain will be as safe as Chicago and Washington DC.
"Semiautomatic?" The things keep slicing as long as the trigger's pulled! ;^)
I had an electric knife with a broken switch -- which makes it fully automatic! Think of the carnage it could cause! You don't even have to reload with more illegal high-capacity "carving clips" to cause mass casualties!
“None of these Rambo-style combat spoons.”
Now you have gone too far! Hands off my grapefruit spoon, YA HEAR!
On my last visit over I actually carried a Kershaw Leek assisted opening knife, not knowing about the law banning knives. Almost had to use it while walking back to my B&B. Fortunately, nobody reported me to the authorities.
A recent BBC survey showed Britons feel safer when visiting the USA (with out high “gun violence”) than back home. The nimrods at BBC couldn’t understand it. Maybe it’s because almost all forms of self-defense in the United Kingdom have been taken away.
Correction: That should be ... our high “gun violence”.
You mean - - - you mean - - - banning guns doesn’t eliminate murder and violent crime?
I’m - - - I’m nonplussed!
That's easy - Right to Keep and Bear Arms. "An Armed Society Is A Polite Society."
Too bad they don’t have one honest citizen armed with a gun. It would have a sobering effect on knife-wielding thugs.
“Clockwork Orange” is no longer fiction.
“The black community supports Operation Blunt. What these communities want is increased stop and search.”
Oh, no. That would be arresting someone for “carrying a knife while black”.
“I hate to tell ya, but from where I sit, I’m not seeing that Britain won.”
They merely traded one group of fanatic anti-Semite invaders for another.
I bet if you’re a Muslim, you can walk around in Picadilly Circus with a scimitar strapped to your belt and the police would look the other way.
We can't have Rapists, Murders and Home Invaders getting cut as they break into your home..
Well, they’re not the brightest of criminals if they’re going into places with metal detectors while carrying knives. Violence won’t go down overall, but maybe it’ll get the stupidest thugs off the street.
That said, what about letting people defend themselves? I’ve read stories of homeowners being arrested for injuring a burglar in their own home. Is there anyone in Britain working to restore the recognition of their right to keep and bear arms, or has the whole nation given up on itself?
Don’t even think of taking my Spork!
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