Action on knife crime

Dec 30 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THIS has been an appalling year for knife crime.

Deaths by stabbing in West Yorkshire rose by 50% last year, according to figures in the Examiner today.

Those looking for positives will cling to the figures which show the problem is much, much worse in other parts of Britain.

But the catalogue of knife crime must never, ever, be regarded as inevitable. The determination to stamp out such behaviour must be reasserted.

All this is put into perspective by the individual cases of lives cut cruelly short – victims such as Ahmed Hassan, a talented A-level student stabbed to death at Dewsbury railway station 12 months ago.

There’s a political row going on over the accuracy of figures obtained by the Tories – but no-one can deny the grim fact that more young people are carrying knives in public.

Numbers of fatal stabbings in West Yorkshire have risen at an appalling rate – and, tragically, there’s little prospect of next year being any better.

There’s a growing consensus for mandatory jail sentences for carrying a blade.

However, a dual approach of prevention as well as cure is essential to any long-term solution.

Particularly relevant is the allocation of more police dedicated to specific schools and the introduction of knife scanners, such as the one tried out at Kirklees College here in Huddersfield.

A debate involving legal figures, victims’ families and politicians is overdue. But when the talking stops, ministers must take tough action.