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From the “news” this week and discussed at the 23_11_22 Anti Knife workshop.
My comments are in Brackets. J
Headline: “A ban on machete is being drawn by the Home Office”
(J: The above spelling is correct)
“A ban on machete is being drawn up by the Home Office - after police warned a legal loophole allows the broad-bladed knives to be sold openly.
By DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR
Updated Nov. 19, 2022 04:51
The possession of so-called “zombie knives” has been punishable by up to four years in prison since July 2021. Sales of the weapons were outlawed in 2016.
However, legislation defines a zombie knife as a blade decorated with images or words. Police representatives are worried killer knives without writing are not covered, and can still be sold to people aged 18 or over.
Machetes, including those with serrated blades, are easily available in the UK from online stores. They are often advertised as “bushcraft” tools for camping. “
(J: machetes are bushcraft tools rather than “bushcraft” tools and indeed, are not uncommon in larger domestic gardens or for those with land. The saw back versions tend to be bought by fanboy “survival” types and are actually less useful. Those in the know tend to use a separate folding saw, knife and axe.
So there is now to be a criminalisation of even legitimate work use and ownership of a tool that is common all around the world.
It will not stop degenerates from carrying one.
I’m still trying to find that scientific study that proved that looking at a blade turns you homicidal. If anyone has access to it, please email in…
There has always been some form of knife and gun crime in the UK. As I recall from the time, machetes really started to gain traction in the public (un)consciousness in the 90’s as a fashion influenced from Yardie gangs in London, they were the crazy dudes that people would whisper about that would do savage shit to you if you were on the wrong side of them, I knew several dudes that, listened to too much dancehall and got carried away liking to pretend to either be one or “connected” just like the “roadman” bollocks that idiots go on about so glowingly these days and then wonder and lament why life in their area is so shit.
This BS slowly and very effectively seeps into the larger youth consciousness over time via endless reinforcement through music, social media, fashion and TV/film.
The machete or, more likely, large impractical fantasy blade with serrations is a contagious fashion item. Carried mostly by kids that want to intimidate rather than know what they’re actually doing with a weapon.
Do something about this behaviour and you might be onto something…)
“London’s Metropolitan Police seized 233 machetes in 2021 – alongside 287 “Rambo” knives, typically smaller weapons with serrated blades, and 182 hunting knives.
Machetes were used in 1,364 crimes in November and December last year in areas outside London, Freedom of Information requests showed.”
(J: According to my research there were:
45,285 offences recorded by police that involved a “knife or sharp instrument” between April ‘2021 and March 2022 in England and Wales - but excluding Greater Manchester police.
In a separate report that includes the Manchester figures you get: 48,931
Robbery was responsible for nearly 17k incidents.
Assault with injury (including also assault to cause serious harm) gave nearly 24.5k incidents.
That is a approximate 33% increase from the start of the recording period in 2010 and a 10% increase on the previous year.
These are incidents that were recorded by police, the real number that actually happened will be far higher and unknown, some are never spoken about or slowly become part of everyday life in many places, eliciting little surprise or special interest. Until it is you or someone you care about of course…
Unlike firearms, these figures are not broken down into types of weapons, so the figures for machetes or large blades etc are unknown to me at present.
So if you take the 1,364 crimes “Machete crimes” figure given for one month last year and presume that it is an average rather than the worst they could find for the news, that gives you 16,368 as a guessed annual figure. Close to a third of the police reported figures.
The number one most used knife in the UK is the - easy to steal from your mum - kitchen knife. There is also little discussion of the kitchen knife’s role in intimate partner violence which never gets a look in in most outcries.)
“Crime minister Chris Philp has consulted the National Police Chiefs’ Council on a ban. It revealed that an announcement is due “in the near future”.”
(J: That’ll give Chris something to talk about in front of cameras won’t it. Isn’t Chris tough on crime! Perhaps there’s an election coming?)
“Horrific incidents include the killing of 17-year-old (name removed) , in Sydenham, south-east London, last April.
A court was told his five killers used a knife and three machetes in the savage attack.
Meanwhile, four men were jailed for murder and two for manslaughter following the killing of (name removed), 18, in a residential Leicester street last year.
Terrified residents witnessed the “ferocious attack” on (name removed) by drug gang members, with weapons including a machete, a court heard.”
(J: Yes, long bladed weapons were present at both of these murders but were they the actual murder weapons?
Doesn’t matter as banning things has proven so effective in the past, oh…wait…
We are on the cusp of the government banning yet more legitimate tools from the population’s use rather than deal with what is really behind this problem, or maybe that’s the idea?)