It never happened a 'YEAR' ago.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9726294/Youths-carrying-knives-less-likely-to-be-jailed-than-a-year-ago.html

/// Almost 200 youths were given a simple reprimand or warning for carrying knives this summer alone, with more than 400 being given community sentences. ///

Less in Jail with more knives on the street, or jail them if carrying a knife?

[Zeuhl]

Because the investigating officers or courts decided the 200 did not represent any threat.

So what?

I have carried a lock knife in my briefcase for years

Just in case I have to cut some string or sharpen a pencil

[FredPuli43]

Blimey, 200 youths, eh? Well I never. How many youths are there in Britain?

The law forbids any person to have any "article which has a blade or is sharply pointed, except a folding pocket knife [the blade of which does not have a cutting edge of more than three inches] in any public place" [Criminal Justice Act 1988 s.139]

Well,that covers most of us. We'd have to prove lawful justification or reasonable excuse (including that it was part of our national dress) to be acquitted, the burden of proving that being on us; no presumption of innocence.

No wonder that police are happy with reprimands and warnings and suspects accept them.Better than all the time and trouble of court, only to see an acquittal in a lot of cases

[Mick-Talbot]

They carried combs...ya div.

[FredPuli43]

Teddy boys carried combs, flick knives, bicycle chains, and other things made into weapons. They and their like caused a change in the law. Until 1953 there was no law against carrying knives or weapons, save some restriction of firearms. In 1953 it became an offence to carry any weapon, anything adapted to be a weapon, and anything at all carried with the intention of using it as a weapon,in a public place. A flick knife was deemed a weapon .

[FredPuli43]

Yes, trigger, aog and his mates started all this trouble, and ever increasing and, you might say, sillier, restrictions on all of us, including the law abiding.

Aog, were you a teddy boy? (I was too young, though my mother horrified my aunts one Christmas by dressing me as one, age 10, complete with painted on sideburns, D A hairstyle, and the complete clothes, drainpipes and all)

[youngmafbog]

All builders, electricians and decorators carrying Stanley knives are doomed then!

[emmie]

the difference now is that some of the gang members carry guns, which as we have seen at least in our neck of the woods, an awful lot of deaths. Black on black gang crime is a scourge, i am not sure if the designated police team that was in operation a while back is still in existence, but if not it needs to be.

[New Judge]

The scandal about this matter (and with many other offences) is that the offence carries a maximum sentence of four years. But police forces across the land are choosing to issue cautions, even for multiple offenders. This is contrary to the spirit of the rules on issuing cautions. They were deemed appropriate for non-serious offences as a way of keeping first time offenders out of court. They are being wildly abused.