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In the last three weeks Special Constable Nisha Patel-Nasri, 29, of Wembley, North London, and Kiyan from Edgware, North West London, have been stabbed to death. In addition, Thomas Grant, 19, was killed on a train in Cumbria and Marvin Jiro, 26, stabbed to death in a fight in Birmingham. The latest victim is Barry Wilson, 29, knifed seven times on Tuesday 30th May while daughters Jasmin, 100, and Latisha, three, watched in horror. Son Troy, seven, was playing nearby.
The facts are that the use of an ‘edged weapon’ has led to the deaths of 167 boys and men and 69 girls and women in the year ending April 2005, and an edged weapon is the most common murder weapon and was used in 29 per cent of all homicides in England and Wales last year. Official statistics now show that over the past decade knives were the most common kind of weapon involved in violent deaths.
Chillingly, the burgeoning knife culture has spread to youngsters, some of whom admit to carrying knives into the classroom. A 2003 study for the Youth Justice Board found 29 per cent of schoolchildren in London admitted they had carried a knife. Evidence now suggests that the most likely group to carry knives are males youths aged between 15 and 16.
Nearly three out of 10 police officers - about 40,000 in England and Wales - have been threatened with a knife while on duty, a major new survey revealed today.
Norman Brennan of the Victims of Crime Trust in response to the Governments knives amnesty revealed that:
§ 60,000 Londoners have either been threatened or attacked with a blade and that knife crime now outnumbered gun crime by a third.
§ Children are murdered on our streets every two weeks as a result of knife crime, and
§ 46 per cent of all murders are carried out with a knife, compared with 12 per cent that are committed with guns.
In spite of the overwhelming evidence with regard to risk posed by knives and other forms of ‘sharp’ of ‘edged’ weapons many staff are still expected to intervene in situations where a weapon is present:
§ The Violent Crime Reduction Bill currently passing through Parliament will give head-teachers of schools, and staff nominated by the head-teacher, lawful authority to remove knives from pupils on school premises and the lawful authority to use reasonable force to do so.
§ In addition, many staff in social care regularly find themselves in situations where a knife is present. One member of staff who works in children’s residential care recently reported to me on a training course that she was expected to “intervene between service users if one was threatening another with a knife and / or if a service user was committing self-harm with a blade”.
§ Programme tutors for the Probation Service also find themselves in situations when running group courses to address offending behaviour. Many have reported individuals (who will have been convicted for carrying or using an offensive weapon) turning up for the sessions with knives on their person.
§ Retail staff consistently have to deal with shop thieves armed with knives as the recent incident at Moss Bros Designed Outlet in Wood Green North London where two retail shop staff were stabbed trying to prevent a theft has yet again shown.
The fact is that knives and edged weapons are the most commonly used item for killing people in the UK and many employed staff face the risks posed by them in their day-to-day working activity, sometimes without adequate advice, guidance, policy and training.
To further compound this problem certain training organisations have produced ‘knife-defence’ programmes where staff are taught physical skills for disarming armed assailants. Recently, in north Wales during an audit inspection I was introduced to teaching staff who had received training from two martial arts instructors in how to disarm a person armed with a knife, including the use of pressure points. When I asked them to show me what they had been taught they struggled to remember the moves and couldn’t apply the pressure point they had been taught to make me drop the knife. “It worked when we did it on the instructors” they said. Really???? Wonder why!!
A knife is a very deadly weapon. Statistically, it has been shown that 30 per cent of individuals stabbed will die from their wounds as opposed to 10 per cent of people who are shot; yet we treat the knife as a lesser weapon than a firearm. This is compounded by the ridiculous techniques taught as 'defences against a knife' taught on certain martial arts and breakaway technique courses which are in many cases useless, negligent, and even downright criminal in their construction and application.
In summary any knife or edged weapon encounter is potentially life threatening. Therefore, under common law staff have the right to defend themselves and others with lethal force. This right to life is promoted even further by Article 2 of the Human Rights Act 1998 which provides the right to life of all citizens and includes the right to deprive another of their life if absolutely necessary to do so in promoting the pursuance of the positive obligation to preserve life of law-abiding citizens.
Therefore, I would urge employers to be cautious when expecting staff to engage in or be exposed to situations where a knife is present without the proper competent advice, guidance, protective equipment and training. Otherwise any death or serious injury, in light of current Health and Safety & Human Rights legislation, could end up with an employer being prosecuted as opposed to staff (see McCann v United Kingdom [1995] 21 EHRR 97).
If you would like training in this area see our Edged Weapons Awareness Course by clicking here. |
