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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @12:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the slashing-stock dept.

POUNDLAND has banned the sale of kitchen knives across the UK in response to the crime wave hitting the country.

The retailer stopped selling the weapons in London last week and is set to extend the ban to all 850 of its UK and Ireland stores by the end of the year.

The move follows 35 people being fatally stabbed in London since the beginning of the year as violence in the capital spikes.

Austin Cook Poundland's retail director said: "We have committed to take knives out of all our stores, starting with London, which we have done with immediate effect a couple of weeks ago, and we will take them out of the rest of the country by October.

"Since I've come into my role we have had a lot of feedback from our store colleagues that we are retailing knives that can have the wrong ultimate purpose for them.

"We want to take them off our shelves and take them out of the hands of the wrong customers and, whilst there is a sales implication for us, it's much more important to us to protect both our colleagues and our customers from any risk.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6069878/poundland-stop-selling-knives-london-stabbings/

Story continues below:

Town-centre pound store prosecuted for knife sale

Management and training procedures at the town-centre branch of a national retail chain were questioned when the company was prosecuted for the sale of a knife to under-age customers.

Poundworld Retail Ltd appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court on 16 May and was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs after being found guilty of selling a knife to a person under the age of 18. The total penalty, including victim surcharge, amounted to £8,520.

The court heard that, as part of a test-purchasing exercise conducted by the council's trading standards department, two 14-year-old volunteers went to the store's North End branch on 28 May 2015 and, after selecting a kitchen knife from a display, took it for payment to one of the tills.

The sales assistant, on only his second day at work in the store, failed to challenge the youngsters and the sale was completed.

http://news.croydon.gov.uk/town-centre-pound-store-prosecuted-for-knife-sale/

  'You cannot be soft on this': Boris Johnson calls for stop and search increase to combat London knife crime surge

Boris Johnson has called for an increased use of stop and search powers to combat knife crime following a spate of fatal stabbings in London.

The Foreign Secretary warned against "going soft" as he insisted that Scotland Yard and Sadiq Khan "come down like a ton of bricks" on gang leaders.

His comments came after teenager Sami Sidhom, 18, was knifed to death on Monday night in the capital's third killing in two days.

Mr Johnson said when he was Mayor of London he adopted a dual approach that boosted stop and search incidents while mentoring young people to prevent them getting sucked into gang violence.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he told current London mayor Sadiq Khan: "You cannot be soft on this."

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/you-cannot-be-soft-on-this-boris-johnson-calls-for-stop-and-search-increase-to-combat-london-knife-a3817816.html

London murder rate overtakes New York as knife crime rises

LONDON (Reuters) - London police investigated more murders than their New York counterparts did over the last two months, statistics show, as the British capital's mayor vowed to fight a "violent scourge" on the streets.
There were 15 murders in London in February against 14 in New York, according to London's Metropolitan Police Service and the New York Police Department. For March, 22 murders were investigated in London, with 21 reports in New York.

  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-crime-murder/london-murder-rate-overtakes-new-york-as-knife-crime-rises-idUSKCN1HA1DH


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Revek on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:00PM (43 children)

    by Revek (5022) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:00PM (#837202)

    You cannot remove the violence.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:11PM (16 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:11PM (#837210)

    First they came for my .... didn't need it so I gave it up.
    Then they came for my ....
    ...
    ...
    ...
    Last they came for my freedom. I'm now a slave.
    How my I help you, Master?

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Bot on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:38PM (13 children)

      by Bot (3902) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:38PM (#837287) Journal

      wartime weapons -> guns -> knives -> screwdrivers -> sticks -> fingers

      --
      Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:13PM (7 children)

        by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:13PM (#837304)

        You left out pitchforks and hammers, not to mention various battery powered hand tools. An impact driver with a long bit could do some serious damage (I've had a few bites on my hands and fingers from such due to slips). Also I have a small, but quite powerful, battery powered reciprocating saw that with a 12" pruning blade in it could be very deadly.
        If you get to the point where you are afraid to go about on the streets, you should stay home or learn some martial arts, or just wear a big tool belt.

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
        • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:22PM (5 children)

          by mhajicek (51) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:22PM (#837393)

          There are now cordless electric chainsaws.

          --
          The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:43PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:43PM (#837428)

            ..and they're not very good.
            Cordless angle-ginders, however, have improved quite a lot, and if you get bored with the creative possibilities of the more normal style discs and blades and still crave some degree of chainsaw action you can always buy one of these beasties [harborfreight.com] for your new toy.

            • (Score: 2, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:24PM

              by DECbot (832) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:24PM (#837489) Journal

              Or put the damn thing on a chain, zip-tie the trigger down, and then spin it over your head. Nobody will mess with a crazy guy whipping around an angle-grinder on a chain. [Probably because it's just a matter of time, he will take care of himself.]

              --
              cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:51PM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 02 2019, @03:51PM (#837930) Journal

              ..and they're not very good.

              Probably good enough if you're trying to make the morning papers.

          • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:36PM (1 child)

            by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:36PM (#837530) Journal

            I have one of these -- an Echo. Honestly, I love it. I need to use a chainsaw for about 60-90 minutes per year. It was such a major struggle to get my gas saw going after sitting around collecting dust those rare times I needed it. With the electric saw, I get about 20-30 minutes of cutting per charge which is fine with me. Cut up some limbs into firewood size, saw runs out of juice, put battery on charger, do clean up on what I've done, have a snack, finish.

            If you needed to run a saw for many hours per day on a weekly basis, an electric would suck. But if you're just chopping up fallen limbs into firewood once or twice a year -- it's WAY better than a gas machine because it will start, there is no gas to store (or realize you need to go buy, plus 2cycle oil), it does what it needs to do.

            • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:37PM

              by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:37PM (#837531) Journal

              Same thing with my weedeater -- I got rid of that 'refuses to start after sitting around POS' and got a battery powered model. Starts every time.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:30PM (#837526)
      • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:49PM (3 children)

        by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:49PM (#837363)

        wartime weapons -> guns -> knives -> screwdrivers -> sticks ->stones ->fingers

        FTFY :)

        --
        "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:10PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:10PM (#837445)

          Spoken like someone who's never fought with sticks and stones.

          A stick is great for keeping an animal at bay. A stone is what you want, if you are trying to do damage (ie. fight) not deter.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:06PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:06PM (#837590)

            Your not thinking of the right kind of stick. A hardwood stick 1/4 the thickness of a baseball bat can be lethal even in untrained hands.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @09:24AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @09:24AM (#840058)

              You prefer deep slices made by kitchen knives?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:58PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:58PM (#837476)

        Shank.

        When knives are outlawed, there will be a lot more messy shank injuries.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:26PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:26PM (#837461) Journal

      Last they came for my freedom. I'm now a slave.

      Be an indentured servant instead. Doesn't that have something to do with dentures? Which will probably be illegal too since they can be weaponized for biting.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:57PM (#837604)

      Clearly we need a national association and lobby for ellipsis owners. They can take my U+2026 from my cold, dead hands.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Revek on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:15PM (13 children)

    by Revek (5022) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:15PM (#837216)

    This post is hardly offtoptic. Its not about the weapons its about the individuals who will resort to violence to serve themselves. The weapons in this case are knives. They are just a symptom of the problem.

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    This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:55PM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:55PM (#837254) Journal

      about the individuals who will resort to violence to serve themselves

      Fekkin' English, serving themselves since ~802, or 871, or thereabouts!

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:10PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:10PM (#837302)

        Fekkin' English, serving themselves since ~802, or 871, or thereabouts!

        Alas, even though this is about London, it isn't about the degenerate mongrel mix of the descendants of the Angle, Saxon and Jute immigrant scum which passes itself off as 'the English' stabbing each other into oblivion there (Unfortunately...besides, there's probably very few 'English' left living in London), but is about the current wave of schvartzer-on-schvartzer stabby wee cunting {descendants of|actual member of} one of our more recent waves of 'racially challenged' immigrant scum, otherwise no-one would be giving one flying fuck about this.

        Our local stabby wee cunts, once you factor in the differences in population numbers, have been just as 'stabby' as their London counterparts, but as they're white (barely recognisable as human, but white), their antics are just not as newsworthy..even though there's a greater chance of stabby-wee-cunt-on-civilian violence happening here (as opposed to London's stabby-wee-cunt-on-stabby-wee-cunt violence)

        Fucking migrants, welcome to the British Isles, it's been going downhill here since those fucking Beaker People moved in...

        • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:43PM (3 children)

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:43PM (#837319) Homepage Journal

          Thank you. Somebody had to say it, and you said it. Boy, did you say it. They joined European Union. So they had to open their Borders to the entire World. Let many people in. Mostly, from Poland. And it's been a disaster for their country. Because Poland is not sending their best people. We love Poland, tremendous country, tremendous people. But the people that are fleeing Poland, so horrible. Those are the worst, the absolute worst. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

          • (Score: 1, Troll) by HiThere on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:44PM (1 child)

            by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:44PM (#837356) Journal

            Somehow I don't think you read the post you are replying to.

            --
            Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: 1, Troll) by maxwell demon on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:47PM

            by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:47PM (#837360) Journal

            Those are the worst, the absolute worst. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

            OK, we've got a progression of getting worse. Starting with drugs, going on to general crime, and then to rapists. And then yet another one, which therefore has to be the very worst: "And some, I assume, are good people."

            Yeah, can't let those horrible good people into the country! ;-)

            --
            The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:22PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:22PM (#837307)

      It is about more than violence -- it about the cost of violence to the perpetrator of violence. A dive deep into the murder rate in Britain shows that what brought relative peace was the gun, the introduction of the wheellock brought about a steep drop in the murder rate, and the even cheaper flintlock some time later, another steep drop. Suddenly the playing field was leveled between thug and victim and every thug had to take into account the real chance that the victim would no longer be a victim, but a defender. No longer would some 20yo meatball be able to act with certainty against an old man or woman.

      What is interesting to me is that the gun made society peaceful enough for long enough, that people began to see the gun as the problem due to edge cases, rather than the instrument that made such violence "edge" cases rather than common occurrences in the first place.

      From: http://billlawrenceonline.com/carlisle-moody-handguns-stop-murders/ [billlawrenceonline.com]

      Murder rates
      13th century: 22.68/100k
      15th century: 40.79/100k
      16th century: 20.28/100k (introduction of wheel lock)
      17th century: 7.84/100k (introduction of flint lock)
      1920: 0.84/100k (year the English right to bear arms terminated)
      1999: 1.44/100k, but look at assaults: this went from 2.39/100k in 1920, to 419.29/100k in 1999. Clearly, thugs are bolder when there is no risk that their victims will fight back.

      • (Score: 5, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:56PM

        by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:56PM (#837327) Journal

        Anti-psychotic medications have a similar problem. They work so well that after a while you feel like you don't need them anymore. Then you stop and bad things happen.

        Something about forgetting history and doom..

      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:46PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:46PM (#837358) Journal

        Umnh....I think you are ignoring all the other changes that happened during those time periods, such as the great London fires, the year of the plague, the invention of police, etc.

        --
        Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:25PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:25PM (#837396)

          Addressed in the original paper, link to which is in link above.

          Another interesting point is how non-gunowners benefited from those who did carry weapons -- criminals couldn't tell who is and is not armed and the cost of guessing wrong could be very high (death). This has played out in assault figures that went from insignificant in 1920 when gun control was instituted, to 200x the level in current times. There's no cost to being a bully anymore in the UK.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:15PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:15PM (#837484)

        NRA propaganda? Right here on SoylentNews? Wow, they must really be in trouble if they have to aim this low!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:52PM (#837537)

          Presume much? Or is it just a convenient talking point every time facts are brought up in the firearm context?

          Carlisle Moody was used as a fact witness by California in the recent CA magazine ban case: http://michellawyers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Duncan-2019-03-29-Order-Granting-Plaintiffs-MSJ.pdf [michellawyers.com]

          See page 70 of the order.

          One of the plaintiffs in that case was the NRA (CA was the defendant). Moody was providing testimony against the NRA -- makes him somewhat of a crappy shill dontchathink?

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:06PM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday May 01 2019, @11:06PM (#837589) Homepage
        All you've proved is that it's correlated to the number of pirates. Not sure if the resurgance is because of that Swedish video library, the farce of whatever countries are calling themselves near the Gulf, or the FSM pirate obsessives. Not that it matters.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:13PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:13PM (#837262)

    Sure you can. Just remove the muslims.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @02:41PM (#837289)

      Convert them to atheists, then they won't kill in the name of their imaginary god. They will just be normal angry people :P

  • (Score: 0, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:57PM (4 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @03:57PM (#837328) Homepage Journal

    WRONG. The violence comes from the very violent movies. And, video games. You put a Ratings System in. And so much of that will go away. So much. In U.S. A. we're working on that one. Very hard.

    And, you give everybody guns. And so much of that violence will go away. Very quickly. I'll tell you, I was talking to our NRA the other day. Giving my yearly speech to NRA. And they made it a gun-free zone, right? Terrible idea. Because there was a very bad, or sick man there. And he threw a cell phone at me. Trying to rearrange my face. The face of the Presidency. So dangerous. So dangerous and that one could have been stopped so easily. So many very gun-adept, good guys there. You let them bring their guns. And they would have whacked that bad guy, trust me.

    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:20PM (3 children)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @04:20PM (#837346)

      The NRA? The *Russian funded* NRA?

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:13PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @06:13PM (#837448)

        Obviously NRA stands for National Russian Association
        :^)

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:30PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:30PM (#837495)

          or in this situation the National Restaurant Association.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:56PM (#837538)

        fucking hilbots.

  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:00PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:00PM (#837373)

    100% agreement,

    This is the argument I make against every ban proposal on any tool or weapon. Banning the tool does nothing about the culture that teaches violence and lethal force to be an acceptable response to any conflict.

    We need to focus on changing that culture of violence, not banning the tools used to commit violence because as history shows violent people will find simply find some other tool to use.

    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:33PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @05:33PM (#837412)

    But you can limit the tools readily available to the violent.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:57PM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday May 01 2019, @08:57PM (#837539) Journal

      Wherever there is prohibition, there is a black market which causes problems far worse than the problems caused by the thing prohibited.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:10PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @10:10PM (#837561)

      Damn near anything can be used.

      I believe most of us here already know the real problem here is intent, not how its carried out.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 01 2019, @07:40PM (#837498)

    You are wrong you Nazi! You can just make voilence illegal by banning it and establish Voilence-free zones! Now take your antifa bike-lock pounding you bigot!