Sixteen-year-old London stab victim Shakilus Townsend pleaded for his mother - Telegraph

Oh my god. This kid was in my bother class at school.
My brother just phoned and told me wha happened. So, so sad.
I used to read to him when we we're younger. I burst into tears when I resd what happened, an 18 inch kitchen knife? Whats wrong with these kids...

Doesn't surprise me in the least.

Legislating inanimate objects solves nothing. However, marching those punks behind the jail and putting a bullet in their empty craniums and threatening to do the same to the parents if they procreate again would get you some mileage.

Makes me feel even more comfortable on the 2nd Amendment ruling here. (Which was silly it had to be an issue in the first case)
Why bother with apathetic cops when you can protect yourself instead.

that is so sad. and so senseless.

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I love how it took 3 white kids, one the brother of a one-time Eastenders actress, getting stabbed this year to make people protest en masse against knife crime.

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I don't mean to sound...insensitive...but London has only had 33 teenaged deaths this year? England does a hell of a lot better than American cities.

British, don't take it the wrong way. I'm amazed that a city like London doesn't have a larger intake of victims. Take it as a good thing.

This is why there's such a big thing about it - with guns illegal over here, the murder rate is much lower than in the states.. It's not 33, by the way, it's more like 17.

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I can't speak for the whole of the US--but as far as homicide rates go in my area most of the guns are outright illegal or are stolen, and many municipal areas consider it a crime for you to not report a stolen weapon within 48 hours of it having been stolen. My hometown, a city of 400,000, for example, just did this. It has not made a difference. This year is barely halfway over and the homicide rates among minors is astronomical. They have not all been gun deaths, either.

When I was held at gunpoint, the gun was traced back to a city police officer who'd had his gun stolen from his own home.

Despite this I strongly suggest people consider self-defense sessions. In addition to self-protection it is also an amazing way to keep fit.

Regardless I hope this or these particular scumfucks get their asses busted.

I edit to add that the local police in a nearby city are outgunned by outlaws who own guns that are not legal, even in the land of the 2nd amendment. The black market thrives here.

The loss of life is sad and lamentable, but at the same time I find it that little bit impalatable that an erstwhile character actress from "Eastenders" has become this self appointed knife culture ombudsman ("ombudsperson"?). Don't get me wrong, her grief and anger are absolutely valid, that's without question, but her assertion that reintroducing compulsory National Service will substantially reduce violence is, at the very least, not well thought out. You have to remember that in the 40's and 50's kids had a PRE-EXISTING respect for the armed forces. It won't work with disaffected scum. Stick them in the military, hone them with ways to "legitimately" kill people, dump them back into an unsuspecting society without addressing or diluting the hate and you'll have people who can kill that more effectively and ruthlessly -- there's already loads of displaced veterans with post traumatic stress disorder out there. Ms. Kinsella's "solution" will only take the potential sociopaths out of circulation for a few years and what will happen once they get back into society with nowhere to channel their aggression properly?

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some of them were french so no big deal guys, just cool it out... It's a great day.

yr not funny.

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pr the fbi

Age Total Sex Race
Male Female Unknown White Black Other Unknown
Total 14,121 10,990 3,099 32 6,929 6,632 365 195
Percent distribution 1 100.0 77.8 21.9 0.2 49.1 47.0 2.6 1.4
Under 18 1,365 928 432 5 689 618 34 24

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and it's like5.5 pr 100,000

so whats the ratio for murder victims in UK?

__________________
When I awoke, the Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinning at my window
All I said was "Come on in".
Grateful Dead

ok okay, i tried.

has anyone been watching all the knife crime programmes on channel 4 last week? I thought the papers were blowing things out of proportion, just reporting more on what's always happened but they said it's tripled in the last 3 years.

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Correct.

The last thing you'd want to do is hone amateur assholes into professional ones. That's what our inept government does worldwide time and time again. Just look where it got us in September 2001.

I read all the papers, no wait, that's a sweeping generalisation, let me re-phrase: I've read a cross section of the papers and the editorials are depressing. The general consensus is "bring back the birch, bring back National Service, bring back hanging, yip, yip, yip....". Instead of emotive, knee jerk quick fixes then what can be done? I don't know the practicality of this but I was thinking that in cases of murder part of the sentence should incur what I call "world community service". Note the inclusion of the word "world". If convicted, the perpetrator should serve out their sentence somewhere in the developing world, assisting VSO and Red Cross volunteers in feeding/innoculating infants and children from life threatenting diseases. I am heartily sick of hearing how people are allegedly "rehabilitated" in prison, why not put rehabilitation into action and send these kids to places like Darfur or Ethiopia and maybe ultimately they can contribute something back to the world. When faced with starving children, disease, the threat of tribal warlords, let's see how their convoluted concept of shanking someone for an alleged diss works out there. Rather than conscripting them into the army, giving them basic nursing skills to work alongside a Red Cross volunteer would give them some sense of esteem, maybe even leading to the realisation that human life is sacred, and they'd be actually productive instead of leeching off the taxpayer (be it benefits or time in prison).

Again, I've no idea how practical it is but the herd mentality of "string 'em up or conscript 'em" annoys the living shit out of me and I'm quite in the mood to argue with people in the editorial section of the Mail.

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"coming up on kittyradio, an erotic thriller featuring Shannon Tweed..."

Possible, just also understand there's some that are just animals and there won't be any fixing it. Hell, most still carry on their gang associations and activities while in prison. They've arrived at the end of the line, yet continue the behavior.

In those cases, I say bring back the Quaker method of penitentiary. A small hole of light, alone in your cell and you do not talk (even to yourself), whisper or whistle or you get to wear the iron mask for a couple days.
If they decide it sucks too much, put a cyanide capsule in the cell with them and say, "You're free to leave at anytime, you just won't be walking out."

I like this idea. I don't know how safe it'd be for 'higher ups', so to speak, with the possible risk of putting dangerous people near children and vulnerable people. But it could work for first-time offenders.

The Japanese system apparently has a 100% success rate (i.e. there have been no known re-offences), it involves putting murderers to work on a farm or some sort of community, rather than prison. It obviously isn't a deterrent the first time, though.