http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=8971
Esme Choonara
"As the media reports stabbings on a daily basis, looks at the reality on the streets and the facts behind the headlines. Knife crime is big news following a number of high profile stabbings over the past month. Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair has called for mandatory sentences for anyone found in possession of a knife. Government ministers are reported to be considering increasing the maximum sentence for carrying a knife from two to five years.
The newspapers have been full of police pictures of piles of confiscated weapons and officers posing with huge blades handed in during the current knife amnesty. If you believe the reports, you would think we are seeing a massive increase in fatal stabbings. Closer examination of the figures show a different story."
