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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: 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

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  • (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]