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Stabbing homicides among teenagers soar in London
A Union flag flies near the The Elizabeth Tower, commonly known Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament in London on February 1, 2017.
I started this article listing recent fatal stabbings in Britain involving young people – a teenage boy killed his teacher in Tewkesbury, two Wolverhampton boys murdered another in a case of mistaken identity, a teenager got 12 years for stabbing a classmate in Gateshead …
But coming to London, I gave up.
When Eliane Andam, 15, was stabbed to death on her way to school in Croydon on September 27, reportedly by a spurned ex-boyfriend, she became the 15th teenage victim of homicide in the capital this year.
The vast majority, 13, were stabbed, while two were shot, illustrating the epidemic of knife crime that is plaguing this country. Two of the victims were aged 15, two were 16, five were 17, three were 18, and three 19.
Statistics show there was a five per cent increase in such crimes across the country last year, with police recording some 45,000 offences involving blades, including more than 260 killings.
After Eliane Andam was stabbed near a London bus stop, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak added his voice to calls for tougher laws against knife crime.
Why the sudden increase in the use of knives by young people? William Greenhalgh thinks he knows. He carried a blade as a teenager, but now, aged 21, he is working to steer youngsters away from violence.
William knows how it feels to stab a rival, but says he never killed or seriously injured anyone. He was born and raised in Birmingham and when his father died, he felt he had to support the family.
“From a young age, I got involved in crime,” he said. Before long, he was part of a gang and ended up being stabbed in a fight. This was a turning point. “I started carrying a knife as a kind of protection mechanism… it’s a common story among young people,” he said.
William turned his life around when he became a father in his late teens and now works with an anti-knife crime group which believes prevention is vital to reducing knife crime.
“There’s a lot of social influence now and it’s seen as more cool to carry a knife, but I’m young myself, I speak their lingo, I start planting seeds,” he said.
He aims to divert teens from picking up a knife in the first place by encouraging them to focus on pursuing their passions, such as sport or music.
“I know in my case, I’ve never killed anyone, luckily, I’ve never actually hospitalised anyone,” William says. But he knows people who have been jailed for murder. “That’s because of the knife and the same situation I was in,” he warned.
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Fewer than half of black Britons feel proud to be British, according to a survey of more than 10,000 British-Africans.
Asked about patriotism, just 49 per cent said they were “definitely” or “somewhat” proud to be British, while 45 per cent said they were “not really” or “not at all” proud of their nationality.
Among under-25s, some 39 per cent said they would like to live in another country.
A leading researcher said the figures highlighted “the chronic level of racial disparities black people face on a daily basis.”
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Visitors to other countries are expected to be considerate and polite. But many tourists don’t seem to know what those words mean.
In Copenhagen, a woman visitor climbed onto the statue of the Little Mermaid, a sculpture inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale. When Danish people booed her, she simply laughed.
Elsewhere, two drunken Americans slept off their binge in the Eiffel Tower in Paris, while a French woman was arrested for carving a heart and her initials into Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.
A Canadian defaced an ancient temple in Japan and a Briton from Bristol etched two names into Rome’s Colosseum, later saying he was unaware of the arena’s great age.
So, ignorant as well as ill-behaved.
* * *
Talking of tourists…
Two Americans were backpacking in Germany when a car drew up and the driver asked in German, “Where is the nearest restaurant?” The Americans looked blank, so the driver asked in French, then Italian, then Spanish, but got the same sheepish looks. He finally drove off, cursing.
Said one of the tourists, “Maybe we should learn a second language?” “What for?” asked his friend, “that dude knew four languages and where did it get him?”
* * *
When a group of tourists visited a crocodile farm, the owner said, “If anyone has the courage to dive into this pond, I will give him a million dollars.” There was a sudden splash and one of the tourists swam frantically through the crocs to safety.
The owner told him, “That was very brave, not many people would dive into water full of crocodiles.” Said the swimmer, “I didn’t dive, somebody pushed me.”
His wife smiled.
What’s that they say, that… “behind every successful man…?”
