Knife crime - what's to be done?

Oh damn it - I spelt knife wrong! CAN I GET NOTHING RIGHT!!!

I'm always annoyed by calls for "something to be done". It basically amounts to "ooh, there should be a law against it", when almost invariably there already is a law against it, you stupid people. On the other hand, it is important to look at the causes of violent crime and to attempt to take the social issues surrounding it seriously. Folk devil or no, knife crime isn't very pleasant, and if there *is* something that can be done to curtail it, then it should be tried. What that thing may be is a mystery to me, however.

Apologies for a ridiculously pointless post. Gah.

i fear the inevitable mallet crime crisis

Next up: fork crime.

It's a difficult one. The current media obsession with knife crime does seem to be creating an impetus for action, which the government could use to rally support for spending on social programmes, but they'll probably squander it with empty rhetoric, or worse, knee-jerk legislation.

Seeing as knife crime is so heavily linked to poverty, my preference would be for a mixture of knife amnesties, urban regeneration, better drug and alcohol rehabilitation services, education workshops in schools and more funding for youth and social services generally, rather than tougher sentencing which just perpetuates the problem. But then, I don't live in an area where knife crime is something I have to immediately fear, so it's all very well for me to sit in my cosy home and talk about long-term measures.

While an impetus for action is one thing, disproportionate public fear obviously won't help anything. It'd be good if all media reports on any violent crime had to carry the disclaimer that the incidence of violent crime in Britain is not actually increasing, just to try and keep the debate on a rational level.

for future reference

lol national service lol youth clubs

I'm always annoyed by calls for "something to be done". It basically amounts to "ooh, there should be a law against it", when almost invariably there already is a law against it, you stupid people.

yeah good point. this meme of "action" seems to be the basic fuel for authority/police

I see your knive crime and I raise with... Gum control!

I remember the time when no one wanted to go to prison because it was so awful and if you did go to prison when you came out you were ostracised by the whole community, and if you attacked a policeman you had to leave town because you were a marked man, now that we have the human rights act it is every scums right to do whatever they want and the dogooders will make up excuses for them, do you remember the case of the terrorist they didn't want to send to the USA because the prisons were to hard

jim maguire, newcastle upon tyne, United Kingdom

yeah, i remember that!

All children will learn from, and ape, there elders!
Right at the top of the tree they see the majority of the government, MPs, banks and big indusry being 'paid' huge bonuses for failure and taking the country for all they can get. Footballers paid, in a week, more than a man in the street will save in a lifetime
They see mindless people on TV making millions on (God help us) 'reality'shows etc. what are they supposed learn from this? When their 'piers', take no responsibility - for anything

charrman, LAKES, United Kingdom

yeah that one in southend is the worst

their 'piers'

http://www.nbc.com/The_Celebrity_Apprentice/images/portraits/piers_morgan.jpg

^^they're right though, fuck this dude

"jake wheeler" from "london" believes the problem is "liberal judges with marxist ideals", you tell 'em jake

http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/pr/pr02.jpg

jake wheeler, yesterday

Increased gun ownership would solve the knife problem

but we already have that.

Noel Gallagher Margaret Thatcher for knive crime

"In my day, status was about trying to be somebody - now it's about trying to kill somebody."

This sounds unlikely for someone born in Longsight in 1967.

Seeing as knife crime is so heavily linked to poverty, my preference would be for a mixture of knife amnesties, urban regeneration, better drug and alcohol rehabilitation services, education workshops in schools and more funding for youth and social services generally, rather than tougher sentencing which just perpetuates the problem. .

Cathy, why not tougher sentencing and better rehab/education/youth services/amnesties ie carrot and stick?

not that i have any clue what I'm talking about, I hasten to add.

"In my day, status was about trying to beat up somebody - now it's about trying to kill somebody."

[/i] Cathy, why not tougher sentencing and better rehab/education/youth services/amnesties ie carrot and stick? [/i]

Because tougher sentencing is counter-productive. With the prison system as it is currently, a young person given a prison sentence for carrying a knife is likely going to be a greater threat to society afterwards than they were before, due to stigmatisation, reduced employment prospects and the effect of having 'home' be amongst other criminals, some far more hardened/experienced. The majority of young people who carry and use knives are highly marginalised from society -- the goal is to bring them back into it as far as possible.

Of course, if a person has used a knife to commit murder or assault, a prison sentence is inevitable (they're already pretty 'tough', see some figures http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060720/text/60720w1849.htm ) But the emphasis should still be on rehabilitation as far as possible.

In Maryhill the other day, a guy said to me that he thought you should get two years in prison just for being with someone who's carrying a knife. Obviously that's completely unworkable, but it reveals a basic principle in a lot of people's thinking that the tougher the sentencing, the greater the deterrent, the fewer people will dare to commit the crime. Now, I'm not a sociologist, but I think that's a total misunderstanding of how human behaviour and society works.

on Newsnight last week Ken Livingstone said that they'd noticed a surge in knife crimes some 18 months ago. why would it increase so quickly like that?

Golf Sale clearout?

"How to make a concealed weapon for Mother's Day" segment broadcast on Blue Peter.

'Fairytale Of New York' back in the charts

Fucking smoking ban.

xp

some 18 months ago eh ? mmm... any connection?

HELLO
I am the ghost of Troubled Joe
hung by his pretty white neck
some eighteen months ago
I travelled to a mystical time zone
but I missed my bed
so I soon came home
they said:
"there's too much caffeine
in your blood stream
and a lack of real spice
in your life"
I said:
"leave me alone because I'm alright, dad
just surprised to still be on my own...."
Ooh, but don't mention love
I'd hate the strain of the pain again
a rush and a push and the land that
we stand on is ours

it's all that cunt's fault

I wonder when the general media OMG KNIVE CRIME bandwagon started rolling?

two steps:
1. Provide free knife-proof vests for everyone so that knives are rendered useless as a weapon.
2. Levy a super high tax on knives so that poor people cannot afford them (and this provides the income for 1.)

on Newsnight last week Ken Livingstone said that they'd noticed a surge in knife crimes some 18 months ago. why would it increase so quickly like that?

it may not have necessarily increased suddenly — might just be that the loads of current media attention makes it seem as though it's increased or is more of a problem now than before.

3. stop mentioning knife crimes like a super scary monster in the media so that kids won't think they will be a super scary monster that everyone will fear when they carry a knife.

Who uses knives? People with impulse control. Not just any old depressed person.

might just be that the loads of current media attention makes it seem as though it's increased or is more of a problem now than before.

no Ken was specifically saying that after discussing with Ian Blair and how they'd noticed a substantial increase begin from around that time

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2007

Raymond Van Barneveld beats Phil Taylor 7-6 in sets to win the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship and collects £100,000.

darts are weapons, knives are weapons

I think knife crime IS actually rising at the moment, in London at least. Or at least, more people being stabbed are actually dying, which makes it more newsworthy. I don't think this is *just* media hysteria.

and even if it was that might be more helpful than harmful, provided it really does spur change. no good ideas yet tho.

all three of my ideas were amazingly good

4. get old and past it celebs like bono or something advertise how great knives are, and then the kids will all be like woah DUDE i ain't carrying no fucking knife no more.

a knife is like a killfile

5. more kevlar

http://labspace.open.ac.uk/file.php/1703/DD100_1_009i.jpg

6. more knives that are actually made of rubber

5. more kevlar

um dude that was 1.

is knife crime an issue in countries where they eat with chopsticks?

NOT PAYING ATTENTION Louis is PLANK, where is SHARPNESS, KNIFE CRIME TZAR says NO to BOGUS PLANS

Is also because this year the victims have died more regularly. Stabbings have never really been news when the victim has lived. Even this year only the ones that resulted in death have made news

It is interesting that the terrorist is under my bed is no longer there since the 14 year old boy with a knife arrived there

Unless i'm mistaken, a knife goes through kevlar without much of a problem. So not very useful unless your knives also shoot bullets...

a stand-up i saw the other day suggested propogating the idea that carrying a knife and/or a gun was "a bit gay" would solve the problem in about a week, since your "average" "yoof" is more scared of being thought of as queer than of being stabbed innit.

didn't know ken c was doing stand-up now

Knife crime is, or will, certainly rise if only because more of it will be reported/recorded as such. There is so little actual information out there though that any debate tends towards the handwringing and not very helpful 'something must be done' type. In the absence of any credible suggestions the void is filled with the usual bilge about prison being too soft, harder sentences needed, the return of the death penalty and it's ALL NU-LABOURS FAULT (or Thatcher's if you're Mr Gallagher).

It's interesting to contrast with the recent spate of books about "Boys" and how they need to get out in the countryside more and build fires and carry penknives and climb trees.

Alan Carr to dress up as knife wielding hoodie on next week's Sunday Night Project, crisis solved.

is knife crime an issue in countries where they eat with chopsticks?

obv never watched any triad films

Is Knife Crime Getting Worse?

Puts a bit of historical perspective on it (esp. the comment that mentions the teddy boys) but doesn;t really answer the question. Perhaps it's unanswerable?

obv never watched any triad films

please don't tell me there's a David Crosby sex tape

ninja style throwing knives!!!

carry penknives

See, i was thinking about this last night while watching the John Snow-presented "let's talk to the young folks about why they're such objectionable arseholes" programme. I carried a (really very sharp) knife between the ages of, say, nine and 14 I'd imagine, but it never once occurred to me to hurt anyone with it or use it in any way to intimidate someone. The only person I ever hurt with it was er me, fucking about with a piece of balsa wood.

Ah, the middle classes.

I think it would be a shame to see politically correct hysteria over knives. My father, a respectable and now retired gentleman, has carried a small pocket kife for many, many years, but as the blade is fraction over two inches long I believe he is guilty of carrying an offensive weapon.
Robert Jones, England

"Kife crime" - what's the story?

many xposts

I think knife crime IS actually rising at the moment, in London at least. Or at least, more people being stabbed are actually dying, which makes it more newsworthy. I don't think this is *just* media hysteria

i'm not being a twat here, but surely you think that because, umm, you're reading it in the papers? and people dying ain't necessarily newsworthy: take it from me. "young black kid stabbed on estate" is big fucking news right now, but i'm not so sure that our wonderful media (yes, the one of which i'm still a part) would have been quite so arsed about splashing with it -- say -- 18 months ago, just to pluck a figure randomly from the air.

ken c makes an important point, i think, even in jest: if everyone's running around going OMG ALL THE KIDS HAVE KNIVES, more and more kids are going to think, fuck, better carry a knife. no, that doesn't explain everything; far from it. but bug-eyed SOCIETY IS DOOMED hysteria is really not what we need.

what do we need? a move away from tribalism would be a start. from what i understand, kids say they carry knives not to attack but to defend; they're scared of other kids from other territories/gangs. so you've got a whole load of little groups wandering about the place, scared of each other but obviously not admitting that and posturing/threatening instead. problem is, the more kids are carrying knives or other weapons, the more chance of one of them getting used in the spur of the moment.

mob mentality is a terrifyingly powerful thing, even if the mob is pretty small. you take a kid who's already disillusioned enough and dehumanise him even more by sticking him in the middle of a group of six or seven angry, threatened/threatening lads: he ain't gonna be thinking about the consequences of what he does.

it's easy to mock noel gallagher, but it would be an improvement if the notion of "respect" were based on achievement, not fear. similarly, parents that gave a shit would be nice, but it's hardly that simple either. TBH, i see no short-term fix here at all. cathy makes some very sensible suggestions but it's going to take a long bloody time.

Or, to put it another way:

I think the point will be a shame which sees Heath reel is accurate in the knife politically. My father, will respect the now the gentleman who retires a many year respects the many thing and small small size kife, carries, but the leaf him carries the assault weapon guilt believes that wears out piece age because of 2 or more inch.

*a pause, to take stock of babelfish*

how can you both punish and rehabilitate violent criminals at the same time? giving them space (not cooping them up in prison), counselling/therapy and providing them with the opportunities and means to operate in society better (training for jobs etc. - in a way that school was somehow unable to manage)...if these are the means of rehab, how much can/should the need to punish obstruct this process?

easy. chop off their hands. sorted.

how can you both punish and rehabilitate violent criminals at the same time?

loss of liberty within society: eg tagging etc? except TAGGING DOESN'T WORK: we know this because the daily mail told us so.

i would say this, because i'm a typical bleeding-heart liberal, but i'd have thought the best idea was to say, right, let's not demonise kids for carrying knives but instead say, OK, you've been caught with a knife, we need to put you through <magical happy-happy rehabiliation process in the land of rainbows; ministers to fill in details later> instead of prosecuting/fining/not addressing the actual cause.

<magical happy-happy rehabiliation process in the land of rainbows; ministers to fill in details later>

thus your 'best idea' is invalidated

The Sun (or NOTW?) was almost, no, not almost, it WAS gleeful in it's discovery that the kid who died last week had gang connections and that his death might lead to reprisals and GANG WAR.

What I don't really understand is why does this type of shit sell newspapers? Why do the readers want to be scared? Why do they want their prejudices confirmed even if it means they're too frightened to leave their house?

Incidentally I carry a small penknive at all times and very handy it is too. I even carried it onto a flight a couple of years ago. Attached to my keyring, went straight through the scanner thingy at the airport.

morbid fascination. do the sales really go up that much tho? every day's headline is Death related anyway.

I don't think sales go up necessarily, but they obviously think it helps sales?

I even carried it onto a flight a couple of years ago

TERRORIST GANG MEMBER EVIL

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4570980.stm

New Years Eve 2005: 35 people stabbed in London!

here's a not-very-secret-secret, dudes: newspapers and TV companies haven't got a fucking clue what to do to stall the sales decline, let alone put on sales/figures. BUT no-one loves a good ol' scare more than the media ... oh, except the public, of course,

What I don't really understand is why does this type of shit sell newspapers? Why do the readers want to be scared?

i could devote the rest of my nascent psychological career to that ...

Why do they want their prejudices confirmed even if it means they're too frightened to leave their house?

... this is a little easier. BEING RIGHT is, i think, such a key motivator. it's informational social influence: ie the desire to be seen to be correct. so you're the average daily mail reader: something that confirms your prejudices will make you feel good about yourself/your self-schema ... and hey, you were scared to leave your house last year because of the terrorists, and before that because of <blueski to insert appropriate example in here, with full references and footnotes>, and even if you DO leave your house you're going to miss the bus/tube because of ken livingstone/boris johnson/immigrants/terrorists/food shortages/OHMYGODWE'REALLGOINGTOHELLINAHANDCART, so what does it matter?

also: it's a damn sight easier to blame everyone else (kids/gangs/gordon brown) than admit that, just maybe, our continued participation in the teetering house of cards that is individualistic western capitalism might just be causing more social problems than it solves. but i'm not going there.

Millions of revellers lit fireworks to dampen transport bosses.

'Fantastic'

Ken Livingstone to enjoy a good police Eye.

sporting heroes - including Andrew Flintoff MBE and Dame Ellen MacArthur - sent into the sky against delighted spectators.

Thousands of people descended on arms to bring on a kitchen fitter.

'Better and better'

about 100,000 acts were treated to eight tons of the Lord Provost.

The ceremonial mayor said the city had been Gleneagles .

"After the G8 summit, people want to come.

In other cities, crowds of thousands closed police - mainly for 35 stabbings across London.

Between midnight and 4am the service dealt with Russell Smith: "We are horrified that there is an evening of celebration for most people".

He said the majority of calls had been closed due to lack of British Transport Police overcrowding.

and even if you DO leave your house you're going to miss the bus/tube

hang on, adjust for daily mail reader: make that "not be able to drive your car because of the congestion charge/too many bendy buses/gordon brown/fuel shortages/straight bananas/scots/OHMYGODI'MHAVINGACORONARY"

STAY INDOORS! READ ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS! WATCH ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS-AFFILIATED TV STATIONS!

If the truth must be told.

but they obviously think it helps sales?

what would decrease newspaper sales tho? once they're established for so long i mean

free knife with this weekend's guardian

Laura Barton centrefold

in G2 "how to set up your own leafy middle-class youth club to keep your nice leafy middle-class kids away from knife crime oh and yes those poor people are welcome too but we don't see many of them around here do we? no, they are lovely though. but poor. yes. I wonder if they are put off by the rhododendrons?"

Another one in Bethnal Green today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/7635053

How many people do you know who carry a knife? Or have been threatened with one? (1,0)

(0,1)

0, 1 or 2

(fecking loads, but not in cities, 0)

what would decrease newspaper sales tho? once they're established for so long i mean

?

Another one in Bethnal Green today

early twenties? pah, practically geriatric. no good for those TERRIFYING TEENAGE STATISTICS.

How many people do you know who carry a knife? Or have been threatened with one?

0 (although there are a couple i have my doubts about), 1 (that said, i've been briefly menaced by a gun after an oh-so-hysterical and utterly trouser-destroying misunderstanding; i also know a dude who was pistol-whipped).

that's a point: wasn't gun crime the big panic a while ago? we should be celebrating: KIDS STILL CHIBBING, NOT SHOOTING! it's a triumph for tradition, says your super soaraway daily male role model.

before the current wave of hysteria, this story -- undeniably shocking and tragic though it is, would have had a very different headline, ie "murder hunt after stabbed youth dies", with maybe the word "gang" thrown into the mix somewhere. now it's this constant, bloody toll of death -- which is wrong anyway, if i recall what i read in "the week" at the weekend, because that 19 doesn't just include stabbing deaths but a shooting and a beating too. (not being glib, just accurate.)

actually, yes, it's even in the story: "Of the 19 teenagers killed in London since January, 15 of them were stabbed to death".

fucking subs :)

(0,1?)

the 1? was me, except the kid threatening me blatently didn't have a knife on him.

In other news, summer's over, might as well kill yourself now readers.

"You have to go back to 2006 for a glorious summer, hot dry and sunny."

Noooo how can anyone be expected to remember that far back? 2 washout Summers back to back predictable enough i guess. Will just have to book a September week in Spain again.

funny: that telegraph story doesn't mention scotland. which was part of britain the last time i looked (worse fucking luc ... sorry, i keep my nat tendencies hidden round here, don't i?)

the only "weather event" happening here is GLORIOUS FUCKING SUNSHINE while i sit in the library toiling over a hot maths textbook and fretting about my MSc application.

In any case did not PROPHET PAUL WELLER see all this FERAL CRIME coming with his 1978 beat classic "Down In The Tube Station, Underground Train Network In London, England, UK, At Midnight"?

you know what would be a good idea? a thread about that song! i'm sure it would contain many insights into the direction and fate of society.

Except, of course, he was talking about the situation then, you know back in the golden days when the sun always shone, there was no crime and everyone had a job...oh hang on...

funny: that telegraph story doesn't mention scotland. which was part of britain the last time i looked (worse fucking luc ... sorry, i keep my nat tendencies hidden round here, don't i?)

well bad weather in Scotland is hardly news is it?

But you listen to the BBC news and it's all "England and Wales," "figures for England," with the occasional "...and Northern Ireland" curveball. Except when it's about BRITISH tennis player Andy Murray (anyone remember him?).

i would've thought with top Caledonian synth wizard Kelvin Harrison at #1 in the hit parade, the Scots would be too busy celebrating that to be bothered about a little exclusion agenda elsewhere

really quick guys what is knife crime

like a hate crime but with more hate

it is when somebody steals a knife and doesn't give it back :)

it's not as bad as using the wrong spoon for the soup course but much worse than using the wrong fork to toast your crumpets.

Didn't the youth in Leith carry knitting needles with them to stab each other with

hey cutting wit, guys.

meanwhile food wastage is getting people as het up as knife crime

Nanny state gone crazy! I'm sick of Gordon Brown and this dictatorship telling the British public what we can and can't do! If I pay for the food I buy I'll waste it if I want to. Get real Gordon and deal with the real issues that concern the British public.

Joe, Darlington

Recommended by 43 people

at least mussolini made the trains run on time amirite?

hey cutting wit, guys

sharp and to the point as always.

Nanny state gone crazy! I'm sick of Gordon Brown and this dictatorship telling the British public what we can and can't do! If I pay for the knife I buy I'll shank people with it if I want to. Get real Gordon and deal with the real issues that concern the British public

etc

Media excitement over knife crime is heating up here in Toronto...

Toronto's sunny months of 2005 were once unfortunately dubbed the 'summer of the gun', while the warm days of 2008 could yet garner the dubious nickname 'summer of the knife.'

again: isn't that a good trend? before we know it, it'll be summer of the stick and summer of the tickly feather.

plain speaking:

L' Girl d' Score; The child movement which goes! I' ; Us and can' What, Gordon Brown and many m-Kranker of this dictatorial system which explains the English public; ; Be a possibility; As for t! Me l' Me of for the sake of; Payment; It gives, I' Shopping; If I desire remainder, l waste him. Gordon is received in truth, it is expenditure of the English public service truth.

how many silly moral panics do y'all have over there in the uk per week?

Four?

Think Intentional Hit and Runs likely to be next moral panic

How many people do you know who carry a knife? Or have been threatened with one?

Zero and then eight, including me, twice, the second time of which I got stabbed in the arm. Nonetheless I'd still like to think I haven't turned into a 'Have your say' mentalist. I agree with all of Cathy's points upthread, but haven't got the faintest idea how we'd even go about implementation.

it's all the parents' fault! well, sort of. it's not the schools, anyway

actually: i agree with him on a level -- swaggering aggression is pretty much a social norm now -- but it's unfair to say that children are just picking this up from parents; they're observing it in almost every sphere.

Government boot stomping crusade undermined by inconvenient facts.

This is the same government that for the last 10 years has persevered in an education policy directly opposed to most of the current knowledge about how children learn, so I doubt they'll worry too much about that report.

And on the "other" side, svelte, slim Cameron says it's all your fault losers now straight to the workhouse and don't pass go.

ha, i just came here to post that same link.

i'll post this stuff instead, then, which is from today's guardian wrap roundup thing:

The Telegraph reports that families have criticised the "shock
tactics" unveiled by the government yesterday that would see young
people caught carrying knives taken to hospital to visit the victims
of knife attacks. That approach receives further criticism in the
inside pages of today's papers. The Mail, Sun and Telegraph's
favoured approach, as outlined in their editorials, can be summarised
by the title of the latter's leader: Prison is the only place for
knife carriers.

There is short shrift for the "shock tactics" in the blogosphere.
Zedbrar, from north London, posted this - somewhat depressing -
comment on thestudentroom: "I think it is stupid. I could walk in a
hospital and see a crash victim from a car accident. Wont stop me
driving, i don't even know the person. I've had people come to my
school and show picture of violent crime and tell people to
stop...still doesn't effect me or anyone else. The only time people
will generally get shocked is when it happens to someone they know or
to themselves. But then most youth will want revenge..."

When one's own government appears to believe the correct response to feeling threatened by other countries is to arm itself to the teeth it's a bit rich for that same government to get shirty about some knives.

Banksy should make a stencil about that

meh, he is worthless now his identity is known.

Probably a Tory anyway.

Banksy should make a stencil about that

What's brilliant about this post is that it can be used to reply to any other post ever made. It's like the "That's what SHE said" of snide Internet oneupmanship!

u mad, doggie

This is how knife crime starts.

thestudentroom (as quoted above) is brilliant, we should do a board invasion and wind up all the 18 year old economics students there that believe paying tax is morally equivalent to the holocaust

don't you have better things to do?

says a guy on an internet message board

i do have better things to do, but that actually sounds like it might be fun.

for a few minutes, anyway.

they're mental and most of them are not 18 and are old enough to know better

says a guy on an internet message board

didn't see that coming

In many cities of the world the level of stabbings wouldn't make the front pages. London in 2007 maybe.

Out of intereest how do you think London compares on this to Paris, Napoli or Sydney?

Napoli depends on whether or not you count stabbing gypsies in the neck as knife crime.

:(

Well done BBC ! So knife crime is a problem yet you continue to show a clip of youngsters with knive etc being stuffed down thier track suite bottoms.

if this is the clip where the kid repeatedly shoves a meat cleaver down the front of his trousers before suddenly realising it's not a very good idea then it should be shown more often

There'd only be the other kind of stabbings going on in Sydney at the moment. Catholic World Youth Day and all that

woah

http://www.maptube.org/map.aspx?mapid=208

to make that map more understandable

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/07/shocking_crime_figures.html

Interesting article but we don't want the crime figures to go down in this country as it goes against the national psyche to have anything to cheer about. Thank god it looks like rain at the weekend.

Hee hee. Awesome.

Her initial controversial decision to be photographed clasping a three-inch flick knife - the day 16 year old Joseph Lappin was stabbed to death - was condemned by those affected by violent crime.

Anti-violence campaigners said the chart topping pop star should be setting a good example rather than glamorising blades.

The 23-year-old from California has now responded by posing with a spoon on her website.

People just queuing up to be the next Russell Brand tabloid target. I suppose it keeps right wing newspaper readers occupied until Obama gets elected.

to my horror yesterday I realised I had left the house with a small but deadly enough looking paring knife still in my pocket and almost pulled it out with my wallet at the Onestop. When my son is in the pool in the garden I keep a sharp knife on me in case he has an epileptic fit and I need to empty the pool fast. I was almost tempted to throw it in the bin outside but then I thought that would look extremely dodgy and it's my only paring knife.