Displaying items by tag: stabbings

Axel Rudakubana, 18, appeared in court facing new charges related to a deadly stabbing incident at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop in Southport. The charges, stemming from a home search, include producing ricin and possessing an al-Qaeda training manual. Rudakubana has already been charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder, for the attack in July when three children were killed and others injured. The magistrate linked the new charges to his previous ones, transferring them to Liverpool Crown Court, where Rudakubana will next appear in November. Despite finding materials linked to terrorism, authorities have not classified the incident as a terrorist attack. Following the attack, false online claims regarding Rudakubana’s background triggered nationwide riots, leading to over 1,500 arrests.

The murders of two 17-year-olds in one weekend have catapulted knife crime back into news headlines. Jodie Chesney’s death stands out because she is the first girl out of ten teenagers who have been killed by knives so far this year. While most victims of murders know their assailant, reports suggest Jodie was stabbed in the back by a stranger in a London park, in a ‘random and unprovoked attack’. Last weekend’s other victim, Yousef Ghaleb Makki, was killed in an affluent Manchester suburb. He attended a private school, and was planning to train as a heart surgeon. These two deaths show that knife violence involving teenagers is not, as is sometimes suggested, a problem confined to boys on tough estates. The homicide rate and the number of teenagers killed with knives in England and Wales is at its highest for a decade.

Knife homicides in England and Wales hit a record high during the twelve months to March 2018. 285 killings destroyed lives and shattered communities. A report released by the Office of National Statistics shows that homicides caused by a knife or sharp instrument increased by 73 compared to the same period in 2016-2017. The highest increases occurred within the 16-to-24 and 25-to-34 male age groups. White victims of fatal stabbings made up around two thirds of the total, at 179, and 25% of those killed were black - the highest number and proportion of black victims since 1997. David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, blamed the government’s failed war on drugs, which has allowed international criminal gangs to ‘pimp out vulnerable black teenagers as drug runners.’ Many are ‘forced into desperate lives of crime.’

A recent surge of violence perpetrated with knives across Germany draws attention to the deterioration of security in the country. People armed with knives, axes and machetes have wreaked havoc across Germany; committing jihadist attacks, homicides, robberies, raids, sexual assaults, honour killings and other violent crimes. Knife violence occurs all over the place, and many people feel that danger lurks everywhere, with little or no public security. The police admit that they find it difficult to maintain order, day and night; they are being accused of not reporting many crimes, to try not to ‘disturb’ public opinion. However, reports indicate that in 2017 incidents of violence with knives and stabbings will reach record levels.

The latest Office for National Statistics report shows increases in high-harm / small-volume violent crime. On the day it was released, a Londoner received critical stab wounds to his head while trying to stop a robbery. Londoners fear that they are in the midst of a crime wave. ‘The demographic of hospital patients is changing from a night-time activity involving drugs and a dark alley to attacks in broad daylight. It’s no longer unusual to go to stabbings of schoolchildren outside their schools in daylight hours,’ said an Air Ambulance medical director. Scotland Yard has set up a specialist task force to combat the problem, with community leaders claiming that some children as young as six are carrying knives. So far this year, thirty people have been stabbed to death in London, a rise of almost a third. 300 knives were seized in seven days by officers across the capital. See