Punishment won’t get rid of knife crime
July 25th, 2008 by Website admin
Mark has an article in the Guardian this week on the UK government’s response to knife crime:
“The government’s response to knife-crime hysteria, the youth crime action plan, is an expensive package of measures, almost exclusively punitive in nature. No surprises there. And let’s not be surprised when it all ends in failure.”
September 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Thugs don’t always need a weapon to hurt their victims. In the four assaults I have suffered, I have been punched, head butted, kicked and even stamped on. All four assaults left me in severe pain, and distressed, agreeing with friends and my parents that I was extremely lucky. Now I am forced to carry a personal alarm with me, and I couldn’t wait to get home from my late shift last night to talk to a best friend. I guess I must have the sort of face that some people would want to punch, but since my brother started to abuse me and I got slapped around by a parent as a kid, I still bottle it when it comes to defending myself for fear of an even worse assault.
Hopefully youths can have other methods by which to channel their energy and be given more constructive ways to channel their aggression than beating up innocent citizens. I was incredibly lucky to be back at work pretty quick after the last time. someone else may not be so. thank goodness someone is doing something to give young people a constructive way to deal with energy and aggression.