Headline horrors

May 22 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A LOOK at Examiner stories of the past few days makes you despair about the violent state of Britain today.

“Three hurt in machete rampage” and “Stabbed in the street” our front pages screamed. Turn to the inside pages and there was “Teen knocked out after lift home”.

Sometimes it reads like the pages of fiction – but it is very real and on our doorstep. All right-thinking people will be justifiably appalled at these stark illustrations of the wanton violence which is a scourge of modern society.

The gut reaction of wanting to impose tough sentences of a minimum of five years for those illegally carrying weapons is entirely predictable.

And surely such a step would be rightful. One that would be welcomed by the law-abiding majority.

At least our towns and cities have not yet become as violent as Los Angeles, where, despite the introduction of zero tolerance, the murder rate is still one of the highest in the world.

But we seem to be fast heading that way.

The challenge is clear – we must root out those who are willing to resort to such extreme violence or face the chilling consequences.