David Davis

“Knife crime“

There are things which need to be said about the horrific murder of “Ben Kinsella”. I didn’t do it at the time, because we were diverted by expenses stuff and slaying GramscoFabianazis, for other and more global crimes. Stalin said I think that “one death is a tragedy, but many are a statistic” – I hope we are not getting like him. Now, as to people like Ben Kinsella, I often put these people’s names in parantheses, whether they are alive, or increasingly these days sadly dead, because I do not really know who they are. They get in the news via minor celebrity-connections, and tragically sometimes meet with misfortune: not that I’d wish misfortune on any human being, and certainly not being stabbed in a dark street, whether in front of people or otherwise. But what happens to them matters, as it throws up signals about what the Enemy Class are trying to do to us all.

For foreign readers unfamiliar, this poor young man was the younger brother of a moderately-famous “TV” “soaps” “actress”. He by all accounts had a bright future and everything going for him (…er…these unfortunate people always do…so why doesn’t everyone?) and got knifed to death in a London street some months ago. It was something to do with being on the periphery of, but in the line of vision of, some GramscoFabiaNazi-engendered-underthugs who have been created on purpose to execute acts like this, outside a “bar” in a rather exciting area of London, well after dark: he and his “mates” having attracted the afforesaid attentions and enquiry-facility of the said droid-underthugs, whose *.exe file acts as a caller-to-dll, to “demand respect”.

When you remove guns, major criminals will pile heavily into guns, and use them all the time, as is the case in the UK today. These people fear nothing, for they know that nobody except their turf-enemies (who will be dead) and the Police, who are (not dead but) bribable -  being Gramscian State-agents – has guns. Minor criminals, such as people with plangent and honourable names such as “Lee”, “Ricky”, “Winston”, “Leroy”, “Patience”,  “Praise-the-Lord-Small-Glass-Ball”, “Duane”, and the like, will take the low road, and will get more simple weaponry for otherwise inconveniencing ordinary people who are in the way. This can mean knives, for knives are freely available for lawful and incontrovertible reasons, and you can hurt people with knives if you know what to do (it’s not as easy as it looks on film.)

The solution to “knifecrime”, as with “guncrime”, is to allow individuals to carry concealed weapons. Being as old as I am, I cannot imagine any normal grown man going about without at least a sharp and multibladed pen-knife in his pocket, as we did as boys in the 1950s. It was what you did – it was your job, and you’d been shown how to whittle sharp sticks with it by your granfather: it was what our fathers and grandfathers did all day, after fighting wars. Students whom I teach are shocked and scandalised and in awe of the fact that this was what we did: if they did so much as go into school with a folded pen-knife in their pocket, they would certainly be “suspended” and possibly “excluded”. I caused a minor stir at the Liverpool office of the Passsport Agency nearly three years ago, when one (with a fortunately short blade, under the minimum length for summary arrest, having been so sharpened for so many decades) was lifted from me by the metal-searching-machine: I have carried it for 49 years. I would no more think of sticking this item into another human than I would fly through the air. But if in a sticky situation in the Small Hours, “in the wrong place at the wrong time” (terrible phrase used by Armed Police who shoot people) it might save my life. Similar items moght save others.

Poor Ben Kinsella was killed because of these things:

(1) He was in a silly place – as a teenager you do NOT go to interesting and exciting bars in shaky places, and _in the night too_ , specially if you have a sexy sister who is on the Wireless Tele Vision, and so you might be a bit known,given what GramscoFabiaNazis have done on purpose to create an agressive and uncontrollable subclass of orcs,

(2) He was unused to personal hand-weapons, probably having grown up in a culture where their very mention is taboo, and thus both unable not only to use them, but more vitally, to parry the blows without too much injury to himself,

(3) He grew up in a culture where you “celebrate” something, such as GCSEs (what’s there to celebrate?) by going to the very places where the gramscoFabiaNazis have put killer-droids masquerading as gin-traps for the unwary.

The Bad Law comes in when our “legislators” recommend huge prison sentences – or worse – for “knife crime”. The solution is threefold: (a) better people, and the elimination of deliberate Gramscian destruction of that fragile fabric of society which gives rise to “better people”, (b) remembrance of the fact that one has a duty to protect one’s own life and that of those one loves, since the State is currently so bad it this job, and (c) not to be railroaded by the MSM into meekly accepting bad abd draconian limitations on one’s own ability to protect against the temporary (hopefully) products of GramscoFabiaNazism.

A month or so ago, I announced my next research project would be on the role Section 28 played in reigniting the gay rights movement in the late 80s. To my chagrin, I was met by two responses from LGBT Britons: a collective yawn coupled with a resounding scoff. I was told Section 28 hadn’t effected anything, wasn’t worth researching, and that there was now no homophobia in the UK. One follower of mine on Twitter went so far as to say the only problems a gay Briton has are ones brought upon himself.

However, for those paying attention this year, the notion that gay Britons are immune to homophobia and violence has been utterly shattered. Last August, 18 year old Michael Causer, of Liverpool, died following a homophobic attack in late July. In November of last year, David Cooper, 28, was beaten to death at his flat in Woolwich after a night of drinking in Soho. Back in March, 59 year old Gerry Edwards and his partner were the victims of a hate crime at their own flat; Edwards died as a result of stab wounds. In July, Edward Highwood, 79, was murdered at his home in Greenwich in what neighbors fear was a gay hate crime. And two weeks ago, 62 year old Ian Baynham was beaten to death in Trafalgar Square after a woman shouted homophobic slurs at him.

Now, in a hospital in Liverpool, trainee cop James Parkes, 22, fights for his life after being beaten by a gang of youths on Stanley Street, the heart of the city’s unofficial gay district. He had been enjoying a night out on the town with his partner and friends.  Police suspect the attack on Parkes, too, is a hate crime.

James Parkes, 22, was attacked after a night out with his partner and friends. Police suspect the attack on Parkes, too, is a hate crime.

This disturbing trend in homophobic assaults and murders is something the British public can ill afford to ignore. I fail to understand the absence of a collective outrage. When Jan Moir’s infamous column regarding Stephen Gately’s death appeared in the Daily Mail, Britain erupted in a firestorm of controversy. But though her words were odious and offensive, Jan Moir didn’t actually kill Stephen Gately. Instead, as Janet Street Porter pointed out in her own column in the Mail, being gay did kill a man the week Mr Gately died, but it wasn’t Mr Gately: it was Mr Baynham.

Now, it looks as though we are yet again prepared to turn a blind eye to the blatant homophobia LGBT Britons face. This is a serious national issue which must be addressed. Britain must face the ugliness of its own reflection in order to make change.

For it is not simply hate crimes against gay men which is the problem; indeed, such crimes are only a symptom of a wider issue facing the country. Mr Causer was killed by two teenage men. Mr Cooper was murdered by a 19 year old Algerian asylum seeker. Mr. Baynham was attacked by two female teenagers. And now Mr Parkes fights for his life because of a violent pack of unforgiving youths. All this in addition to 2008’s horrendous epidemic of knife crime, perpetrated largely by teenagers.

Cases like these, as well as those of knife crime victims Rob Knox, Ben Kinsella, and Jimmy Mizen, amongst dozens of others, underscore two paramount needs. First, we must endeavor to understand what about our culture has led youths to see violence—regardless of whether the crime is a homophobic beating or a youth-on-youth stabbing—as socially acceptable. Then we must strengthen laws designed to combat such violence so as they serve not only as a vehicle to punish such offenses, but as a deterrent to their ever being committed.

Sixteen year old Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death last year

On both these counts, Gordon Brown and the Labour government have failed miserably. Since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, instances of both homophobic hate crimes and knife crime have risen substantially. Though Jack Straw and his ilk insist that Labour is “tough on crime,” every time you open a newspaper you’re hearing of another violent attack perpetrated by a British youth.

Let us not kid ourselves—the policies of this government have a major correlation to the epidemic of violence facing the nation today. If we are completely honest, we will acknowledge that a good portion of these crimes result from the lack of assimilation of immigrants, who often come from impoverished, war-torn areas where violence ins the norm.  Consequently, they live in urban ghettos and find themselves in squalor and poverty. Poverty breeds gangs which breed crime. In attempting to remain politically correct and embrace a multicultural society, this government has neglected the needs of immigrants and created a new class of poor and working poor people, condemning them to live in impoverished slums instead of providing them with the tools necessary to become successful, productive British citizens.

We must then look at why British youths—regardless of race or national origin—are embracing a culture of violence. To this question there are no easy answers. The Labour Government has provided far too lenient of sentences for perpetrators, and its policies of “education” (by showing perpetrators victims of knife crimes in hospital, for example) are a miserable failure. Indeed, many offenders receive little more than a fine after being caught carrying a knife, which hardly bolsters Labour’s claim to be “tough on crime.”

We must also be sure to teach our children to respect differences. In cases like Michael Causer and now James Parkes, homophobia has reared its ugly head. Just as we must accept that the policies of this government have failed, we must also accept that society has failed itself. For too long homophobic slurs have been socially acceptable, and for too long violent images have been allowed to permeate television, films, and video games. Parents must take responsibility for what they allow their children to be exposed to, as well as emphasizing the value of every human life.

Until Britain can honestly address the issues it faces, and until a government is elected that is equipped and ready to handle the problem, the country cannot begin to counter the staggering and alarming increase in violent crime.

Topless Celebrity Shoplifting vs. Darfur – Nicholas Kristof on the decisions made by journalists when it comes to covering serious international news.

Rhys Jones – Caught in the Crossfire – A sensitive ITV documentary about the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones and the subsequent conviction of his killer.

My Brother Ben: Brooke Kinsella’s Story – Another documentary about violence on Britain’s streets, this time focusing on the story of Ben Kinsella.

NEWS ITEM

Some kind of closure has finally been granted to the grieving friends and family of Ben Kinsella after he was brutally stabbed to death on a London street. This has led to the usual condemnation of knife culture but has more so led me to thinking about what seems to be different fighting cultures amongst each racial group. Now I will say that this is a very general post and I don’t want to cause or perpetuate racial stereotypes. However it is blatantly clear that in my line of work different cultures brawl in different ways.

Black youths tend to favour knives and guns, luckily there are very few shooters on the streets on Smalltown.

With our Kurdish and Middle Eastern friends we seem to see a lot of iron bars and blunt instruments.

The Asian gangs sometimes use baseball bats or sticks but tend to remain unarmed and use their belts if needed.

Polish trouble tends to come along with knives.

The Chinese weapon of choice seems to be the meat cleaver, clichéd but seemingly true?

White lads go for whatever is near, normally a bottle though they have been known to carry brass knuckles.

Weapons seem to be the last resort of the coward, sadly in Smalltown even without weapons the biggest threat is group action. We have had some very nasty beatings even without the use of weapons and I don’t think that Knives will ever be the problem. Its the people holding them.

RIP Ben, I’d like to hope that your death will make somebody somewhere sit and and see sense. I think however that there is sadly no sense for the senseless.

Large

It is, of course, now common knowledge that hood-wearing individuals carry an enormous social stigma in today’s Britain, thanks to criminal acts of gang rape, violence, stabbings and shootings carried out in this apparel. This has now ruined wearing hoodies for the rest of us. Some may think this foolhardy, but to test the judgment of the general public, I decided to do something I have vowed never to do in the capital of London since 2005. I wore a hooded top for a whole day in public.

Now this might be a moot point to a lot of you, but I urge you to think of the contraindications at hand. A petite, 27 year old married woman I may be, but by mere appearance I possess a face with all the youthfulness of a baby’s bottom. Still I supposed, it’s marginally upheld these days that we live in a democracy and so, wearing a hooded top at liberty shouldn’t break any moral codes for someone like me….should it?

Let’s face it. Like it or not, London is filled with rather a lot of rude, shovy people. Any Londoner sharing the Eastern petiteness gene has had their fair share of newspapers being fiercely rattled into your mouth, giant Selfridges bags rested in your lap without permission, wildly gesticulating tourists smacking you in the head, people trampling all over your pristine shoes and of course, the notorious sweaty armpit aloft your nose and smarting eye. All to be experienced aboard London transport. Aloha. Welcome to the capital.

But as my social experiment concluded yesterday, nothing beats wearing a hooded top in public if you wish to be a target of complete verbal abuse! I was mortified and appalled at the outcome of the public perception of a young-looking individual wearing a hoody. Categorically, this is what happened.

I was almost immediately harrassed by a homeless illegal immigrant for money as I popped into a quiet parish in Ealing. (My directing him to the local Jobcentre was what produced the confession that he had no permit to work in the UK.) Despite this he sought to intimidate and frighten me into handing over the meagre 18p I had on me after lunch. I then sat on a bus through Acton where a lovely rancid, unshaven man three times my size, suddenly turned and called me a “stupid bitch” for glancing over at him. Incidentally, the lout alighted a few stops later to walk into a filthy, dilapidated old-man pub. By the time I’d got to my destination, Shepherd’s Bush, I was about ready to remove the top and burn it. Unfortunately it had begun pouring with rain and, being umbrella-less, I made the awful misjudgment of putting my hood UP in the pouring rain. (Oh Carolyn..). It was here that I was delivered the final insult. At the crossing, I was met the glaring daggers of oncoming pedestrians, who absolutely refused to let me cross the road and shoved me against the street railings. I tore my hood down and found myself politely shouting, “WILL you let me cross!!!” before I could battle through to the other side of the road, lest the lights change for an unforgiving bus driver to run over me.

Unless you live in London you will not be familiar with the stigma that young people in hooded tops are equated with violent outcasts and thugs carrying knives, guns, drugs and in all likelihood, belong to gangs. The current generation of teenage Londoners who are persistently involved in criminality, schematically wear hooded tops to conceal their faces and therefore their identity when carrying out shop/house/street robberies, stabbings, gang rape and murders. The hood is worn up in public as aversion intimidation, causing pedestrians to side-step, cross the street or step down into the road to avoid making eye contact. Although a large proportion of London’s teenagers are drug dealers, thieves and gang members, there is still a significant proportion of British young people who are NOT. Wearing a hooded top for them, can have uninvited repercussions.

I for one, will not wear a hooded top ever again in public, until I move to the US where the stigma surrounding hoodies does not exist!

CCTV footage of teenager Ben Kinsella moments after he was fatally stabbed has been shown to a jury in the trial of three men charged with his murder.

He was stabbed 11 times after leaving a bar in Islington, north London, in June last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Juress Kika, 19, and Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 20, all from London, have all pleaded not guilty to the 16-year-old’s murder.

Ben’s sister, former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was also in court.

‘Argument broke out’

The court heard that Ben died after leaving the Shillibeers bar in York Way on 29 June 2008.

An argument had broken out in the bar between a youth known only as Alfie and a friend of Mr Braithwaite’s named Osman Ozdemir, the court heard.

This was not a war zone far away – this was Islington in London Nicholas Hilliard QC, prosecuting

Prosecuting, Nicholas Hilliard QC said: “Alfie and Ben Kinsella knew each other although Ben Kinsella was not part of the dispute.”

A boy called Michael allegedly heard Mr Braithwaite say: “Tell your boy if he wants trouble, I’ve got my tool on me and it will open you up.”

The court heard that Ben and his friends left the bar shortly before 0200 BST, when they were chased by the defendants. They allegedly caught up with Ben and killed him.

Mr Hilliard said: “They managed to catch up with the deceased, knocked him from his feet at the rear of a parked van and, as he lay on the ground, launched a lethal attack upon him in which a total of 11 stab wounds were inflicted.”

One of the stab wounds was to Ben’s heart, two went into his lungs and damaged an artery, the court heard.

CCTV footage showed Ben stumbling from behind a van after being fatally wounded.

Mr Hilliard added: “No-one suggests Ben Kinsella was anything other than totally blameless.

“This was not a war zone far away. This was Islington in London.”

The trial continues.

Friends of stab victim Ben Kinsella celebrated his life by turning up to his funeral wearing fancy dress on Friday.

Many people wore colourful wigs and large sunglasses as they paid their last respects to Ben, 16, who was stabbed in north London last month.

Others attending the service at the church in Islington, north London, wore T-shirts bearing anti-knife slogans.

About 1,000 people, including the local MP and TV actors, attended the service.

Ben’s sister, former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, 24, said: “Please, please let us learn from Ben and every other child that has been stolen from us.”

Ben’s close friend Brooke Dunford, 16, said: “He wouldn’t have wanted everyone to wear black.”

Outside the church she laid a bunch of flowers with a note which read:

The most saddest day of my life, Ben, when I lost you.

I will hold you in my heart forever, I love you, you hottie.

Former EastEnders actresses Gillian Taylforth and Michelle Ryan and MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn were among those present at the funeral.

Also in attendance was Richard Taylor, whose 10-year-old son Damilola was stabbed to death with broken glass in November 2000 in Peckham, south east London.

A website and charity have also been set up in Ben’s memory, with funds going to teen weapons awareness campaigns.

Source: BBC

The rapid growth in knife crime incidents is a tragedy for the victims, their families and UK society. Street crime is nothing new; neither is carrying a knife especially new. Thirty to forty years’ ago carrying a pocket pen-knife was de rigour for most boys. Yet in those days carrying a knife was closely associated with the principles scouting rather than as a weapon of aggression.  Somewhere between these decades there seems to have been a massive cultural shift towards aggressive behaviour.

However all that is based on the premise that media reports aren’t sensationalising the issue. The most up-to-date survey by the Metropolitan Police shows knife crime has dropped by 15.7 per cent in the past two years. Something a contradiction to the 17 youths killed in London alone during the first half of 2008. This contradiction is partly due to crime statistics themselves. Official police figures could be distorted to due police processes which don’t register all knife incidents between young people. In contrast the British Crime Survey (otherwise known as the victim study) doesn’t record data from people under 16 or anyone without a postal address. A recent survey by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) would seem to back this discrepancy up, reporting a 12 per cent increase since 2002 in teenagers carrying weapons.

Notwithstanding such statistical fillips along with scope for media exaggeration there are real victims of knife crimes mainly because more young people are carrying knives. Nowhere is this more poignant than in Ben Kinsella’s letter to Gordon Brown, which was sent just weeks before he falling victim to a brutal knife attack.

Ben’s solutions to knife crime were in stark contrast to those propagated by the News of World. Instead longer prison sentences the 16 year-old suggest the Prime Minister introduce parenting classes, curfews and youth clubs as possible solutions. Such an approach stills well with that of Camila Batmanghelidjh. Her organization Kids Company has helped around 12,000 vulnerable children integrate into mainstream society.

Batmanghelidjh’s reasoning is that if you grow up in a dangerous environment where your parents and authorities aren’t protecting you, then the conclusion is that human life is not worthwhile. The message, she says, is “the more violent you are, the more protection you’ll have”. It is hard for many people to appreciate what it’s like to be disenfranchised from mainstream society.

Being in a gang, carrying a knife to protect your patch provides young people with status when there’s not much else to do so you form a subculture. Our society is meritocratic. It’s a culture where to be someone in the world you have a big house, cars, and all the other material provisions money provides. Without money there is no status and for many young people the minimum wage will not provide them with the same status a gang will bring.

Maybe the knife carrying culture has changed over the decades because in the past young people had more opportunities to achieve with genuine apprenticeship schemes, and opportunities to create a life of your own. Now we have just created gangs or subcultures of young people frustrated by the lack of opportunity to enhance their status in acceptable ways.

This is going to be a quick blog really because I am pushed for time and I feel so hyper and NOT focused so maybe this blog will sound sketchy?.

I am beginning to feel so ashamed of England because of all these recent stabbings that have occurred, they seem so random and vicious and senseless, the case of Ben Kinsella brother to Eastenders star Brooke Kinsella,who was stabbed outside a bar in the early hours by teenagers!. The brutal killing of two French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, who were stabbed in total 242 times and burned to death, a teenager who was tied to a tree and forced to drink petrol and then set on fire!, and I could literally name countless more victims of these incredibly evil and pointless murders!.

I don’t know which direction this country in going but the government really need to analyse the structure of its police force and legal system and until it does these killings will continue because there seems to be no guidelines or law to protect the innocent citizens of this country!.

I am stuck dumb each time the news reports another incident and can only feel saddened and ashamed of the place that I have lived all my life.

• Since 2002, the number of youngsters hospitalised with knife wounds has almost doubled. Today’s Sun newspaper reveals a shocking 88% increase.

• Yet Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told GMTV yesterday: “Knife crime is not more serious than it has been.”

• A woman is on the run after slaying a recently-miscarried woman with a knife near the Home Secretary’s Peckham home on Tuesday night. Earlier this year Miss Smith admitted she would not feel safe walking alone in certain parts of London after dark. Two armed guards were in position outside her house following the attack.

• Anti-knives campaign Operation Blunt saw children go through a metal detector while waiting for a bus yesterday in Purley, Surrey.

• London is safe for our children, according to London Mayor Boris Johnson. But he told a knife crime conference: “I want to make it much safer.”

Still going through reading the wisdom in the Bible’s book of Proverbs, on the 1^st of a new month. Proverbs 1 starts with the promises of wisdom (my version especially talks about how young men need this), before describing the lure of wickedness.

Verses 10 to 14 could have come right out of the mouths of some very lost boys who featured in a disturbing documentary I watched last night; Kids, Knives, and Broken Lives. I have also been brought to tears as I’ve read about the latest boy, Ben Kinsella, stabbed to death in London. 16 years of age!

What the teenagers featured on the show said they were looking for was, “Respect.” (‘If you don’t have respect,’ said one, ‘you don’t have nothing!’). The way they get that? By imparting fear.

Dig below the surface a little though and you saw a lot of fear in them too, these kids can’t leave their own streets!

Parenting guru Steve Biddulph reports that this macho front is a classic sign of what is called under-fathering (he says the opposite extreme of the same problem is to become and remain a ‘Mummy’s boy.’). Where are young men to look for role models?

The Bible says ‘Bad company corrupts good character.” Imagine being brought up, with little or no parental discipline or love – then a gang invites you to belong. Our nation needs some David Wilkersons to rise up, find the Nicky Cruz equivalents on our doorsteps and bring them to know the Lord who loves them. Are they too far gone for that? If you think so – you MUST watch this video:

Look at wisdom’s prescription these young men need to hear; the words of a wise HEAVENLY Father:

….if bad companions tempt you,
don’t go along with them.
If they say—”Let’s go out and raise some hell.
Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let’s pick them clean
and get them ready for their funerals.
We’ll load up on top-quality loot.
We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
With us, it’s share and share alike!”—
….don’t give them a second look;
don’t listen to them for a minute.
They’re racing to a very bad end,
hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.

From the Message – Proverbs 1

]]> http://disarmingbritain.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/march-for-ben/ Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:27:17 +0000 Kyle http://disarmingbritain.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/march-for-ben/

Teenagers have taken to the streets to protest against knives in the wake of 16-year old Ben Kinsella’s murder.

Foto: Telegraph / Blumen und ein Foto an der Stelle, wo der Jugendliche getötet wurde

Heute musste ich in der Zeitung lesen, dass in London schon wieder ein Teenager Opfer eines Messer-Attentats geworden ist. Als ich am 26. Mai den Beitrag über den jungen Schauspieler Robert Knox geschrieben habe, waren es schon 14 Todesfälle dieser Art in London im Jahr 2008 – jetzt ist der 17. Messermord geschehen.

Diesmal ist das Opfer der 16-jährige Ben Kinsella, Bruder der 24-jährigen englischen TV-Schauspielerin Brooke Kinsella. In der Nacht von Samstag auf Sonntag war Ben Kinsella in einem Pub in York Way im Norden Londons, wo eine Geburtstagsparty gefeiert wurde. Dort brach ein heftiger Streit zwischen zwei rivalisierenden Jugendgruppen aus, der sich dann auf die Straße vor das Pub verlagerte.

Kinsella geriet dann offenbar ziemlich übel mit anderen Jugendlichen aneinander. Er versuchte davonzulaufen und per Handy Hilfe zu rufen: “Help” schrie er verzweifelt ins Telefon, als sein Freund David Dugdale endlich seinen Anruf entgegen nahm. Dann brach das Gespräch ab, weil ihn offenbar seine Verfolger eingeholt hatten. Danach geschah das schreckliche Verbrechen.

Ein Anwohner hörte schließlich die Hilfe-Schreie des Schwerstverletzten. Obwohl Polizei und Rettung schnell am Tatort waren, konnte das Leben des 16-jährigen nicht mehr gerettet werden. Er verstarb noch in der Nacht im Krankenhaus.

Bens Schwester Brooke Kinsella nahm den schrecklichen Vorfall zum Anlass, noch einmal im Namen der Opfer zu einem Ende der Gewalt an Teenagern in London aufzurufen. Die bewegenden Worte, die sie bei einer Pressekonferenz sagte, sollte man sich anhören. Für die Familien der Getöten muss es einfach schrecklich sein, wenn ihre Kinder und Geschwister so sinnlos aus dem Leben gerissen werden :-/. Was geht nur in den Tätern vor? Bringt denen keiner bei, dass es einen Unterschied zwischen einer Schlägerei und einem Mord gibt?

Our friends brought their two year old son round to play with our little boy, yesterday. It was a beautiful summer day: the sun warm and bright. The lawn was newly mown, and the flowers in tubs and pots around our decking were looking lovely.

We played in the garden, and ate lunch together round the table. Then we dads took the boys out in their buggies for a walk in the sunshine, and to get them off to sleep for afternoon naps.

Unusually, as we walked along the road, there was a crowd at the end of our street. Two crowds – girls on one side of the road, boys on the other. And police tape. Police cars. Photographers.

As we approached the scene, a feeling of tension in the air. My friend ventured a guess before we got close enough to see anything more of the scene that lay around the corner. He had seen the the blue and white police tape strung across the road, and flapping in the breeze. “Do you think it’s another stabbing?”.

Forensic officers in white paper suits moved quickly back and forth, behind a cordon of police officers, who were diverting traffic and answering enquiries from concerned pedestrians.

The story unfolded on the television knews later that day. At around 2am on Sunday morning, 16 year old Ben Kinsella became the 17th teenager murdered in London’s streets this year [murder of teenager Ben Kinsella]. He’d been stabbed following a fight at a local bar and nightspot, popular with young people from across the area.

Reports today say that Ben may not even have been involved in the argument in the bar, but that he had been chased by a group of youths after running away from potential trouble.

Last year (2007), 27 teenagers were killed on London’s streets. 18 were stabbed to death, 8 were shot and one was beaten. This unprecedented level of violence prompted calls for new measures to deal with London’s teenage gang, knife and gun crime problem. But the trend has continued into 2008 [London's teenage murder victims 2008].

The victims of this year’s tally have been between 14 and 19 years of age. Despite police and media focus on teenage knife crime, in most cases it appears that their assailants have been older than their victims. At least three involved assailants in their twenties, and one a 45 year old man. This may be more about a rise in cases of fatal violence against teenagers, rather than an increase in teenage violence [questions asked over teen murders].

The issue has been sensationalised by a media eager to exploit public fears [the truth about street weapons].

But that won’t be any comfort to the 17 families who have lost a son or daughter to violence in London in the year so far, or to the others who will inevitably suffer similar loss as the year goes on.

My eldest son is 15. Just a year younger than Ben. How much should I be concerned for him? Or for his sister (now 13) and baby brother (2)? Can we let our hearts go out to the families affected by this violence, yet accept it, assuming that statistically it is unlikely to happen to our own?