Young men, violence and knives

[Amaw2008]

We hear a lot of reasons cited for the rise in knife crime. Undoubtedly there are many factors, but I think the underlying issue is relatively simple. Apologies for going off at a bit of a tangent, but I remember being back at school in the early seventies, aged twelve or thirteen, when we had to do a piece of French translation. There was a discussion even back then of the need to kerb violence, and different opinions were given by different people in a short film. I remember what a middle-aged Parisian said: "Violence is part of life. When I was at school I came back each day with cuts and bruises, later in the resistance, I had to kill..." and so on. I remember thinking at the time what a horrible, backward man, brutish, phallic and a host of other adjectives. My dad was quite a decent amateur boxer, so there are probably a few Freudian issues here, but it was basically the reaction of a more placid guy who doesn't have a particular love of violence to the opinions of someone who does. Later, when I got older, I realised that it can't just be wished away, and that even I had some affinity for it (I did Judo as far as green belt), and enjoyed it. Basically, when you stand, facing your opponent in the minutes before thew bout starts, and get knocked around a bit on the mat, you learn to take a calmer attitude to the whole business. Humans, especially men are inherently violent, some more than others. It's an old argument, but if you try to ignore it rather than channel it, it will emerge in other forms. To ignore it is like saying that sulphuric acid is just like water, misunderstood, you can splash it over your legs with no problems. Am I advocating a return to the 1950's in attitude? Not quite. I would like to see a world where it was equally acceptable just to walk away, but if a fight was unavoidable, the quieter guy was prepared.

[Ako Si Jamie]

When I was a youngster I was very placid. I made Steve Wool look like Joey Barton on steroids - that's how laid-back I was. As I reached adulthood and during my twenties I became more confrontational when provoked. Beforehand I used to walk away from conflict mostly if I hadn't lost my rag by then because I didn't like violence.

Walking away has its disadvantages though. Perceived by some as a sign of weakness, this can make you look like a wildebeest on the lunch menu. The predators can smell blood and you become a target. What do you do at this point?

Doing one is out of the question as the problem won't go away. The only way out is to fight fire with fire. They'll use violence so you have to follow suit.

Back in my day it was knuckles and black eyes. Nowadays it's knives and death. Different methods. Same circumstances.

[Tawi2]

Some people only understand violence,a lot of the knife crime in London is black on black,thats why plod introduced trident 30 years ago to try and clamp down on it,kids in gangs fighting for whatever reason,glasgow used to have really bad knife crime at one time I think it was the worst place in the western world for stabbings?