Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?

There is a discussion going on in Denmark concerning the prolific amount of stabbings that are taking place in the cities at night. Apart from the crimes of passion that occur within the walls of private homes, there are a lot of people getting stabbed simply for being on the wrong street at the wrong time. The latest suggestion is to allow the police to stop and search as they have been doing, but now the carrying of knives will be illegal in itself and will be punishable by a short incarceration. All knives. Anywhere. At least, in the evening.
This is not aimed at workmen, who use a knife as a part of their toolkit, but is aimed at people out on the town. Especially the younger people. But a ban on the carrying of knives will affect everybody.

Actually, the whole idea is ridiculous.

There is a huge difference between a pensioner who trots around town with a Swiss army knife in his pocket and the crew-cut bully-boy of dubious background and nationality with a six inch Bowie under his hoodie bomber jacket that is perpetrating the criminal activity in question, i.e. stabbing innocent passers by in the hope of relieving said passers by of their cell phones, wallets or, as in one incident last weekend, his knitted hat, or to curry “respect” from his peers on the street.

The preferred weapon is not the culprit. The peaceful and the law abiding do not carry knives now. Only the thugs do. Merely taking the knife from them will not stop the attacks. There are other weapons that are equally effective in a mugging or any malicious activity. Screwdrivers, chisels, bodkins and even ice picks. Are all these to be illegal too? Anything can be used as a weapon in a pinch. Even a ball point pen or a sharpened pencil.

This is not the way to go.

We have to go after the crime and the criminal, not the equipment used by the criminal. Equipment is inanimate and harmless in itself. Guns and knives don’t kill people. People kill people. Simply removing his knife won’t stop the criminal thug.

The correct thing to do, would be to beef up the police presence in the evening hours and, on catching these criminal types, the giving of truly harsh sentences for threatening the public safety, mugging or just plain old criminal assault with a deadly weapon. There is no other reason than criminal intent to carry a knife, or any other weapon, into a disco, bar, café or shopping mall or to carry one in our streets.

At least, not unless you are an old age pensioner, who hasn’t the teeth to take a bite out of an unpeeled apple.