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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Knife crime robbery stats from Home Office show 10% rise

KNIFE crime-related robberies, according to UK police figures, rose 10% year-on-year up to last September - but British Crime Survey (BCS) statistics showed no increase in estimated numbers of muggings and robberies at knife-point over the same year.

Here are the actual figures: robberies with knives totalled 15,313, rising from the previous year's 2010 figures of 13,971. Full details can be seen in the Home Office document 'Crime in England and Wales: Quarterly Update to September 2011'.

Two sources provide the latest knife crime statistics contained in the regular Home Office update - police recorded crime and the BCS. The Home Office state: "Neither source provides a total count of crime and each has its strengths and weaknesses." More details and explanation are contained in the 24-page report.

What causes people to pick up a blade and threaten to stick it into another person? Greed, desperation, poverty, swagger, arrogance, mental illness? If you know, add a post to this blog; it will be checked and published... if not abusive / threatening etc itself.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Baby boomers blamed for societal problems by Harvard

Since this blog started, posts and comment posters have banged on about an amoral / immoral, profit-only business world - led by self-obsessed baby boomers - being at least partly responsible for killing society, giving people little to aspire to - and leading some to take to crime, even knife crime (see this post, for instance: Business is killing security and happiness in our society).

Interesting then to see the message getting through to the educational heartlands of business... business writers and lecturers at Harvard now seem to be getting the point - read here about their call for more responsible corporate leadership.

Here's an excerpt:

As the New Year approaches, people will be making resolutions to eat better, exercise more, get that promotion at work, or spend more time with their families. While these are worthwhile goals, we have a more important challenge for young people: Think seriously about your development as a leader.
These are tough times. Many leaders of the baby boomer generation have failed in their responsibilities by placing their self-interest ahead of their organizations. In so doing, they have failed to serve society's best interests. As a result, more young leaders from Gen X and the Millennials are being asked to take on major leadership responsibilities.

It seems wrong and unfair that it is the young who must be relied upon to work god knows how much harder to correct the fatal errors of the baby boom generation. Hopefully at least some of those old and shamed past generations will see the error of their ways and offer some support... especially financial (instead of hanging on to their ill-gotten gains like some kind of Sheriff of Nottingham)... to ensure this world economic mess we are in is sorted out for the greater good.

Will this 'new thinking' rub off on the careerist, pompous, ego-driven, self-serving politicians (easily bought by lobbyists), the greedy and self-interested, the power-crazed? We wait, with some impatience, to see change in profit-only cultures in corporations and companies.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Racism and knife crime

A person is a person is a person; a human being.

Anyone who takes a knife, or other weapon, and inflicts injury or death on another person for (deluded) reasons connected to the colour of her or his skin is someone who commits a racist assault or killing.

Not much more definition needed to make it clear what is a racist (knife) crime... crystal clear.

(Photos of some knife crime victims: many people of different colours, many of them should have been too young to die...  :'-(  http://knifecrime.blogspot.com/2010/12/murderous-death-toll-england-capital.html )

Monday, January 02, 2012

Ban the Voodoo knife block in 2012!

CAN someone explain to me why anyone would buy the voodoo knifeman kitchen block? It is unfathomable why this sickening knife 'toy' (for adults, allegedly) is still on sale for use in the home.

If I was to write a review about these it would say: "Sickening rubbish: if you are anti-knife crime, do not buy!"
Knifeman stand / Sickening stabbing block

I spotted Red or Dead co-founder Wayne Hemingway and his other half Gerardine had one in a photo of their kitchen carried in Hello! magazine last year (like the one inset on this knife crime post).

It is baffling why prominent people, such as these trendy / fashion-conscious partners - with huge fashion design credentials - would own such offensive crap. (You may recall Wayne Hemingway recently moved the Vintage Festival event from Chichester / Goodwood to London, unsuccessfully apparently; here's another example of poor judgement then.)

When this knife crime blog first started, I remember highlighting how people in the fashion industry have some kind of sick love affair with violence, stabbing, death, knives, guns etc. Do you recall the post? You can read it again here (about an Italian fashion house... must be something in the sick mafia blood over there): Boycott Dolce & Gabbana over idiot knife adverts.  Think D&G removed the ad (thank goodness!) but the BBC report is still live and explains all and the ASA ban on this horrendous advert is still accessible. Wonder how many more fashionista idiots abound... let me know!

In any event, let's have the anti-knife crime campaigners get these voodoo 'blade blocks' banned, let's have retailers remove them from shop shelves and online stores stop stocking them. At the very least we need to embarrass (odd!) people, such as the Hemingway's, buying them. If you bought one by accident, just bin it (try metal recycling perhaps, pop it in at one of the world's police stations, or drop it off in a local knife amnesty bucket somewhere).