Youngsters urged to speak out against knife crime

The faces of hundreds of youngsters will soon be appearing on billboards on public streets around the country, including Little Horton Lane in Bradford.

Young people are being encouraged to add their anti-knife photo pledges on the Bebo ‘It Doesn’t Have To Happen’ website. The ‘I say no to knives’ images will then be included on the billboards.

It is part of a £3 million Government campaign to deter youngsters from arming themselves with knives.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “I want young people to stand united with us in the fight to tackle knife crime and send a clear message that weapons wont be tolerated on our streets.

“The vast majority of young people are honest and law-abiding and it is crucial that we all spread the message more widely that carrying a knife is not acceptable. We can’t do this alone – we need the help of local communities to make a stand.”

Members of the Bradford and Keighley Youth Parliament are welcoming the chance to be involved in the debate on knife crime.

The Parliament’s publicity liaison officer, Paul Carter, said knife crime, along with drugs and community cohesion, were the issues which young people frequently raised as a concern.

But he said the views of young people were usually ignored on matters which impacted on them.

Mr Carter said: “It is a bit early to say whether it will work in a practical sense, but we welcome the principle of trying to involve young people. This gives them the opportunity to speak out against knife crime and some of the Youth Parliament Members will get involved, I am sure.

“Knife crime is something they want to talk about and be involved in finding a solution for. A lot of the time, decision-makers talk about the issue but don’t ask the young people for their input.

“It’s a very good idea to use the social networking site of Bebo as the arena to involve the young people. They talk about knife crime as a problem that is going on in their experience. There is a reality to the issue. It’s not groundless. There is definitely an issue that needs talking about.

“Anything that allows young people to be involved in finding a solution to the issue is a good thing and this is a start.”

This summer a number of Bradford high school pupils linked up with the Twisting Yarn theatre education company to produce a hard-hitting play about the fatal dangers of using knives. They performed the play for hundreds of their peers at the Alhambra.

Serish Khan, 16, who played one of the leading roles, said she would be taking part in the campaign.

“I would love to have my face on the billboard. Knife crime is an issue that we need to highlight throughout society as a whole. The more people that are aware of it the better and you need the younger generation involved.

“When we did the research for the play we found many people were injured when they picked up a knife in self-defence. There should be more publicity about that. If you carry a knife for your protection you are more likely to get hurt. What you should do if you are worried about something is tell the police.”

Zak Anwar, 15, who also took a leading part in the play, also plans to put his name forward. “If the kids are part of the problem the kids should be part of the solution. They are the ones who are often targeted by knife criminals. If they are setting an example people will listen.”

Another pupil, Ashlee Naylor, said: “It’s a really good idea. There isn’t much publicity about knife crime, except bad publicity. But, although it is a problem, I don’t think it’s as bad as the media make out, so an idea like this which brings good publicity is what we need.”

The teenagers are all pupils at Tong High School. Their drama teacher, Anne Reilly, said: “This is such an important issue and our students who worked on the subject appreciated how important it is for society and for younger people to get to grips with it. Listening to young people’s views is the most important thing we can do.”

Inspector Esther Hobbs, of Bradford South Police, who is in charge of the Tackling Knife Crime Project, said Bradford did not have a significant knife crime problem and it was important to keep it that way.

In four months to the end of August knife crime in Bradford South fell by 12 per cent. It has also fallen throughout West Yorkshire to 1,791 in 2007-8 from 2,073 the previous year.

But a number of police initiatives are being introduced, including a confidential knife reporting service, increased stop and searches and a Responsible Retailer scheme.

West Yorkshire Police, one of ten Tackling Knives Action Programmes in the country, has been promised an extra £3m for a visible police presence on school runs and dedicated police officers to work with schools and vulnerable pupils.

Airport-style mobile safety arches, to search for weapons, have been introduced in the Bradford district.

The so-called knife arches have been used twice at Wibsey Fair, where 1,000 people were scanned and two knives and a cosh were recovered, once at the Bradford Interchange and also at a night club in Keighley. School liaison officers are also going into schools to deliver hard-hitting messages about the dangers of carrying knives, including graphic photos of injuries suffered by people carrying knives for their own protection.

Insp Hobbs said using new technology was a good way of getting the safety message across to young people.

She said: “Thankfully, we don’t have a significant problem with knife crime in Bradford, though that is not to say we don’t have knife offences.

“There have been high-profile cases nationally of young people being seriously injured or fatally injured. We don’t want Bradford to go down the same path. We want Bradford to remain a low crime area for knife crime.

“We are showing schoolchildren posters of people injured by knives to dispel the myths about carrying a knife for your own protection. The truth is that if you carry a knife you are more likely to be injured in knife crime.” Bradford Council leader Kris Hopkins said: “Many young people in the district are aware of the issue surrounding knife crime and, last year, members of Bradford and Keighley Youth Parliament debated the issue and agreed that more should be done to tackle the problem, including increased spot checks in schools.

“I am happy to welcome this billboard campaign which provides a vehicle to allow young people to make their voices heard and reinforce the wider message that it is unacceptable for anyone to carry a knife on our streets.”

Councillor Martin Smith, chairman of Bradford District Safer Communities Partnership, pointed out that knife crime in the district had fallen by more than a third in the past five years.

“We support this campaign and will continue to work together with our partners to make the district as safe as possible.”

The Church is also playing a role in the knife crime debate. A report on the topic by Churches Together in England has been published and is being launched at Little Lane Church in Bradford this month.